(GunReports.com) — While the 2012 U.S. Olympic Team for shotgun will be decided in the coming months, the future of the program continues to unfold each year with the naming of the Junior Olympic Shotgun Team. This year, 22 shooters were selected for the team for which they will receive the support, assistance and coaching needed to advance through the ranks of competitive shotgun shooting.
The Junior Olympic program for USA shooting can often be the beginning of the Olympic journey for many shooters. Tasked with the responsibility to identify the brightest young talent in the sport, USA Shooting is proud to announce the members of the 2012 Junior Olympic Shotgun Team. The Junior Olympic Shotgun Team is the gateway into the USA Shooting Team’s Olympic path. National Shotgun Coach Bret Erickson and the Junior Olympic Shotgun Team committee reviewed 80-plus applications this year—a record number that indicates growth in the shooting sports.
“The talent pool has strengthened over the past year and the competition was steep,” said Erickson, a four-time Olympian. “We’re happy to acknowledge this group of young kids in hopes that they’ll gain the confidence and maturity necessary to be elite-level shooters in our program down the road.”
New to the program is the addition of a Men’s Double Trap category for which four shooters were selected for the first time ever.
The team is comprised of nine trap, nine skeet and four double trap shooters. Shooters from the Lone Star State make up the majority of the team, with six of the 22 shooters announced hailing from Texas. Tennessee and California also were heavy contributors to the team placing four and three shotgun athletes on the team respectively.
William Hinton (Dacula, Ga.) and Christopher Webster (Bainbridge, Ga.) come from USA Shooting’s Certified Training Center South George Youth Shooting and Bridge Creek Clays in Hartsfield, Ga. Under the direction of Coach Mike Simpson, Hinton and Webster now comprise half of the Junior Olympic Shotgun Team for Men’s Double Trap. Robert Johnson (Phoenix, Ariz.) also developed his skills at another USAS Certified Training Center in Phoenix. Johnson trains at the Ben Avery Shooting Facility/Clay Target Center.
The 2012 Junior Olympic Shotgun Team is as follows:
Men’s and Women’s Trap
Kimberley Bowers (Lafayette, Calif.)
Haley Colbert (Texarkana, Ark.)
Grant Dorris (Lexington, Tenn.)
Michael Flores (Sacramento, Calif.)
Jered Harris (College Station, Texas)
Rebekah Lowen (Hillsboro, Mo.)
Logan Mountain (Palmdale, Calif.)
Dakotah Richardson (Godley, Texas)
Corey Spruill (St. Charles, Mo.)
Men’s Double Trap
Trey Hill (Murfreesboro, Tenn.)
William Hinton (Dacula, Ga.)
Jordan Hintz (Burlington, Wis.)
Christopher Webster (Bainbridge, Ga.)
Men’s and Women’s Skeet
Coulter DeWitt (Bryan, Texas)
Granger DeWitt (Bryan, Texas)
Hannah Houston (Columbia, Tenn.)
Robert Johnson (Phoenix, Ariz.)
Jakob Keldsen (Walkerton, Ind.)
Nash Porter (Bryan, Texas)
William Stewart (Columbia, Tenn.)
Dania Vizzi (Odessa, Fla.)
Zachary Womack (Bowie, Texas)
