Montrose High School students take aim at skeet-shooting club
MONTROSE
THE FLINT JOURNAL FIRST EDITION
Thursday, May 03, 2007
By David V. Graham
MONTROSE - Montrose High School has become the latest Genesee County school to authorize a skeet-shooting club for its students.
The team practices every Thursday at the Genesee Sportsmen's Club in Flushing Township, and two of its three-member squads already have won first place in skeet-shooting competitions around the state.
The Montrose team is scheduled to compete in three more shoots in May and June, including the Michigan State Scholastic Clay Target Championship on June 16 at the Detroit Gun Club.
Team members also will compete against other local high schools in a countywide competition at the Genesee Sportsmen's Club on June 23. Scheduled to compete are teams from Bentley, Goodrich, Byron, Grand Blanc and Davison high schools, said George Gilliam Jr., president of the sportsmen's club and head coach of the Montrose team.
In 2005, Bentley High School became the first school in Genesee County - and the second in the state - to organize a high school skeet team.
About 25 students compete on the Montrose team, said teacher Jeremy Harber, one of Gilliam's assistant coaches. The other coaches are Al and Ginny Basner, Bob Edwards and Stan Knuth.
Harber said most of the team members are students who don't participate in other team sports or after-school activities, although a few are members of Montrose's football or baseball teams.
He said the team was organized last fall after Kameron Williams, a student who works as a trap boy at the gun club, approached him and asked if he would help organize the skeet club.
Harber said he agreed to do so because he enjoyed hunting and target shooting with his father and grandfather when he was growing up in Clio. He said school officials endorsed the idea, although the school district does not provide any funding for the sport.
Most of the students bring their own shotguns or borrow them from team members, Harber said, but a few use loaner shotguns provided by a gun club program that provides free lessons and loaner shotguns for women or youths interested in learning how to shoot skeet.
The program is sponsored by the National Rifle Association.
One man who has five sons in the program purchased a shotgun for each boy after he found out how much they liked shooting, Harber said.
That appears to be a common reaction from the novice shooters
Brian Molaski, 17, of Montrose Township uses his father's left-handed semi-automatic shotgun and shot 13 out of 25 targets his first round.
He recently shot a perfect 25 in a tournament, he said.
"It's fun to shoot," he said. "It gets me ready for duck season, and I like meeting new people."
Gilliam, who has donated about $1,100 of his own money for clay targets and shells for the team, said he enjoys teaching kids how to shoot.
"It is so much fun to watch a kid go from hardly hitting any clay pigeons to breaking at least 70 percent of them within a few weeks," he said.
"Some of these kids have never handled a gun before, and they like it so much."
Gilliam, who hopes to see at least two more local high schools authorize a club skeet team, said he is aware some people don't like the idea of teaching kids how to shoot because of recent shooting incidents at schools.
But he said, he has confidence in these kids.
"These are good kids who are learning gun safety and how to respect firearms," he said.
"I don't think it is likely we are going to have any problems with these kids down the road."
MONTROSE
THE FLINT JOURNAL FIRST EDITION
Thursday, May 03, 2007
By David V. Graham
MONTROSE - Montrose High School has become the latest Genesee County school to authorize a skeet-shooting club for its students.
The team practices every Thursday at the Genesee Sportsmen's Club in Flushing Township, and two of its three-member squads already have won first place in skeet-shooting competitions around the state.
The Montrose team is scheduled to compete in three more shoots in May and June, including the Michigan State Scholastic Clay Target Championship on June 16 at the Detroit Gun Club.
Team members also will compete against other local high schools in a countywide competition at the Genesee Sportsmen's Club on June 23. Scheduled to compete are teams from Bentley, Goodrich, Byron, Grand Blanc and Davison high schools, said George Gilliam Jr., president of the sportsmen's club and head coach of the Montrose team.
In 2005, Bentley High School became the first school in Genesee County - and the second in the state - to organize a high school skeet team.
About 25 students compete on the Montrose team, said teacher Jeremy Harber, one of Gilliam's assistant coaches. The other coaches are Al and Ginny Basner, Bob Edwards and Stan Knuth.
Harber said most of the team members are students who don't participate in other team sports or after-school activities, although a few are members of Montrose's football or baseball teams.
He said the team was organized last fall after Kameron Williams, a student who works as a trap boy at the gun club, approached him and asked if he would help organize the skeet club.
Harber said he agreed to do so because he enjoyed hunting and target shooting with his father and grandfather when he was growing up in Clio. He said school officials endorsed the idea, although the school district does not provide any funding for the sport.
Most of the students bring their own shotguns or borrow them from team members, Harber said, but a few use loaner shotguns provided by a gun club program that provides free lessons and loaner shotguns for women or youths interested in learning how to shoot skeet.
The program is sponsored by the National Rifle Association.
One man who has five sons in the program purchased a shotgun for each boy after he found out how much they liked shooting, Harber said.
That appears to be a common reaction from the novice shooters
Brian Molaski, 17, of Montrose Township uses his father's left-handed semi-automatic shotgun and shot 13 out of 25 targets his first round.
He recently shot a perfect 25 in a tournament, he said.
"It's fun to shoot," he said. "It gets me ready for duck season, and I like meeting new people."
Gilliam, who has donated about $1,100 of his own money for clay targets and shells for the team, said he enjoys teaching kids how to shoot.
"It is so much fun to watch a kid go from hardly hitting any clay pigeons to breaking at least 70 percent of them within a few weeks," he said.
"Some of these kids have never handled a gun before, and they like it so much."
Gilliam, who hopes to see at least two more local high schools authorize a club skeet team, said he is aware some people don't like the idea of teaching kids how to shoot because of recent shooting incidents at schools.
But he said, he has confidence in these kids.
"These are good kids who are learning gun safety and how to respect firearms," he said.
"I don't think it is likely we are going to have any problems with these kids down the road."