Gatewood wins State Championship in Clay Target Sports for the second year in a row. The Gatewood Shotgun Team dominated Fri-Sat’s Tournament in Savannah at Forest City Gun Club by 29 targets over Westwood Academy, the 2nd place team.
The Gators back to back State win also saw Jasper Copelan win his 3rd HighOverall Shooter Award in a row, with a total of 287 hit out of a possible 300. Gatewood will loose 3 of their top Shooters this year, with our Graduating Seniors: Jasper Copelan, Brice Garland, and Austin Matysiak.
The 242 shooters who attended the event shot 100 targets in all 3 of the American Clay Target disciplines, Skeet, Trap and Sporting Clays. The Gators win was never really in jeopardy . After Fridays competition Gatewood had a strong 13 target lead. Saturdays event concluded with a strong showing in the trap division, which sealed the victory. In Addition, Gatewood placed 4 shooters on the GISA All-State Team: Jasper Copelan, Aaron Copelan, Taylor Hyatt, and Nash Sinclair .Gatewood had two other shooters, that were only 4 targets out of the All State Award, Baylor Garland and Hank Hall. Other individual highlights include: a straight 100 skeet hits by Aaron Copelan, along with 97 out of 100 sporting targets. Jasper Copelan had a 99 out of 100 Skeet Targets with 97 out of 100 on trap. Taylor Hyatt won an exciting shoot off for Sporting Clays 3rd Place Individual. In the Ladies Division Ansley Wallace finished 3rd high overall. 2nd in trap and 4th in skeet.
The Shotgun Team consists of 15 Varsity Shooters who attended the event: Aaron Copelan, Jasper Copelan, Will Dutton, Jackson Embry, Graham Eubanks, Baylor Garland, Brice Garland, Hank Hall, Taylor Hyatt, Marshall Johnston, Austin Matysiak, Nash Sinclair, Reese Waddell, Ansley Wallace, and Weston Wallace.
Thanks to great support of the Gatewood community, the Gators have emerged as a powerhouse in a relatively new sport. We’d like to also thank the great support we’ve received from devoted parents and family members, Headmaster Chris Charles, Athletic Director Buster Douglas and a strong coaching staff. We are blessed with Dr. Sammy McFaddin to be a part of this team. Sammy has mentored and helped many young shooters for close to 25 years. In particular Sammy has been Jasper’s coach since the 5th grade, and has been his best friend and supporter.
Other members of our coaching staff are: Danny and Clara Copelan( head coaches) Steve Johnston ( JV Head Coach & Varsity Coach) Allen Garland, Kenny Hyatt, John and Paulette Hall, Steve Sinclair, David Wallace, Assistant Coaches. and Teena Garland ( Statistician) .
