Breaking clay

Cabot teens bring home second national title

Team B.E.A.S.T. won its second consecutive national trapshooting championship Aug. 3-16 at Sparta, Ill. Team members (from left) are Cameron Layes, Cort Rochelle, Macie Woods, Bailey Finley and Hunter Reynolds. The boys are all from Cabot; Woods is from Marshall.
Team B.E.A.S.T. won its second consecutive national trapshooting championship Aug. 3-16 at Sparta, Ill. Team members (from left) are Cameron Layes, Cort Rochelle, Macie Woods, Bailey Finley and Hunter Reynolds. The boys are all from Cabot; Woods is from Marshall.

Cabot is making a strong claim to be the youth trapshooting capital of the world.

For the second consecutive year, Team B.E.A.S.T. -- composed mostly of Cabot teenagers -- won the AIM Grand National Youth Trapshooting Championships on Aug. 3-16 at Sparta, Ill.

The acronym stands for Brothers Establishing Attitude, Strength and Toughness. Team members were Bailey Finley, 15; Cort Rochelle, 14; Cameron Layes, 14; Hunter Reynolds, 14; John Riley Wiens, 14; and Macie Woods, 15. Wiens did not compete in the Grand National because of football commitments, but he was a major player before leaving the team, said Robby Pennock, one of the team's coaches. Woods replaced Wiens in July.

Devon Melbourne of Ward also coached the team, and Wendy Pennock served as a coach, organizer and quartermaster.

The event is the crowning event for the Academic, Integrity, Marksmanship division of the Amateur Trapshooting Association. It is the nation's premier youth shotgunning championship and is held annually at the World Shooting and Recreational Complex. It contains 135 trap fields that stretch about three miles.

A total of 1,130 youths participated from around the world. Of those, 102 were from Arkansas, Pennock said. He credited the Arkansas Youth Shooting Sports Program for generating such high interest in trapshooting in our state. The AYSSP is a competitive, school-oriented trapshooting program conducted by the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission. The AGFC established the program in 2007, and Team B.E.A.S.T. is an outgrowth.

"If it wasn't for AYSSP, these kids would have never gotten there," Pennock said. "AIM is a step above that. It's more targets, more commitment, but AYSSP is how I met these kids."

Finley is in 10th grade at Cabot High School. Rochelle and Layes are in ninth grade at Cabot Freshman Academy, and Reynolds is in eighth grade at Cabot. Woods is in 10th grade at Marshall High School.

Team B.E.A.S.T. won the Grand National Singles Championship, Champion Squad, Sub-Junior Class AA. That is the highest classification. In 2013, the team won the Sub-Junior Class B title. Corporately, the team broke 949 of 1,000 targets, the same number it broke in its 2013 championship run.

Individually, the team members won multiple awards. Finley competed from Aug. 3-10. He fired more than 2,000 rounds and shot a perfect 100. He was named to the 2014 AIM All-Star Team.

Rochelle also fired more than 2,000 rounds from Aug. 3-10 and placed third in the Trapshooting USA Handicap 18-20.5-yard category.

Layes was the national team race runner-up, the Zoli Doubles B Class runner-up, and the Browning 500 Doubles Class champion. He also placed third in the Trap & Field Handicap. He was the only member to compete in the entire meet, and he fired more than 3,000 rounds.

Reynolds was the Trapshooting USA Handicap runner-up and the ATA Super 500 Handicap runner-up. He competed Aug. 3-13 and fired more than 2,500 rounds. Reynolds didn't win individual awards in 2013. His progression has been the most conspicuous in personality and performance, Pennock said.

"When I first met Hunter, he wouldn't hardly talk," Pennock said. "Now you can't hardly get him not to talk. His mother and teachers saw that it gave him some confidence."

That's the biggest asset of competitive shooting, Pennock said. Anyone can excel, regardless of height, weight or athletic ability.

"This is a sport that, if you're not good at football or you're not good a basketball, you can do this sport and you can do it at different levels," Pennock said. "Every young person has an opportunity."

Wiens was named to the 2014 All-American team.

"That's one of the highest honors you can get in ATA sub-junior," Pennock said.

Wiens earned that honor for his performance in 2013, which included winning the sub-junior A Class and All-Around Champion at the 2013 Grand National.

Woods was a formidable addition. She won the overall singles champion in Sub-Junior Ladies and runner-up in the Grand America Trapshooting USA Handicap Lady 1. She also qualified for the Lady 1 Arkansas State team and shot a perfect round. She fired more than 1,800 rounds from Aug. 3-13.

Pennock said he met Woods and her parents in 2013 and was impressed with her poise and ability.

"We encouraged her parents to go to the Grand National last year, and they fell in love with it," Pennock said. "She's a good basketball player and a phenomenal shot. When John Riley had to make a choice between football and shooting, she was a no-brainer choice to replace him."

Rhonda Reynolds, Hunter's mother, said she was awed by the way adult shooters take the children under their wings at the Grand National. They give them tips about shooting, but they also teach them how to act like champions.

"They just take over with the boys and talk to them and share their experience," Reynolds said. "It's a great group of people."

As a parent, watching a trap shoot is exhausting, Reynolds said. It's nonstop action, with a lot of the same emotional swings they feel watching football or basketball.

"One of the men told Hunter, 'Your daddy is making every shot you're making in his mind. He's just as worn out as you are,' " Rhonda said. "They have their highs and lows, but some of the older men said you can tell a good shooter by the way they walk off the line. You can't tell if they did good or bad because they don't show it."

As with any sport, Pennock said parental support is key to the team's success. The equipment for shooting trap is expensive, let alone the travel and time.

"Their parents are the real heroes," Pennock said. "They are blessed to have parents to sacrifice and do all they've done. I just show them how to shoot a target."

The parents and coaches created an environment for success, but the kids still had to perform.

"They practice every week, twice a week, and they made a commitment to repeat," Pennock said. "There's a lot of shooting that went on to get back to this place. They earned it by putting in the hard work that nobody saw."

Sports on 09/07/2014

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