team TARGET R
by Mark Miller | photos courtesy of Dave Hubbard
aise your hand if you knew Marcus High School had a Clay Target Team! Anyone answering yes should be aware it won its first national titles in June — less than a month after capturing a state championship.
Marcus took the varsity Sporting Clays division at the Texas Youth Education in
Shooting Sports (TXYESS) in Waco and Fort Worth and the United States Youth Education in Shooting Sports (USAYESS) events in San Antonio. Participating on both teams were John Perkins, Alex Siebert, Logan Harris, Grant Holdorf, and Hunter Garner. Now a senior, Garner joins Holdorf, a junior, on this year’s team.
Also returning is sophomore Olivia Simmons, who won the girls’ national junior varsity American Skeet and Skeet Doubles. She also joined Max Bradlo, Josh
Wynne, James Eade, and Brayden Scott to earn gold in junior varsity American Skeet, American Trap, and Sporting Clays. The intermediate squad finished third in all three disciplines.
Winning state titles at Marcus dates back to 2015-2016, five years after the
club was founded as part of the Youth Target Foundation by Jeanie Almond.
Her granddaughter, Makenna Van Sant, was one of 12 students who were part of that original team.
Devin Barge, a competitive clay target shooter since the late 1990s who is a multiple nationally-certified instructor and referee and range safety officer,
served as co-head coach with Glenn Smoot until 2019 and by himself in 2020-
2021 when his daughter Taylor graduated. Barge started as an instructor and has returned to that role this year under new head coach Dave Hubbard, whose son Michael is an eighth grader at Lamar Middle School.
“Success comes from focusing on being good people and doing the right
thing,” Barge said. “The sport is simple in concept and the mechanics. It’s fun
but not necessarily easy. It’s the same principle as golf and the bow and arrow. It’s all about execution. It’s simple but not easy.”
Barge helped the program grow to as many as 60 members between 2015-16 and 2018-2019. It dipped to about 35 last year and this year due in large part to the COVID-19 pandemic which canceled state and national competitions. 56 | FLOWER MOUND TOWN LIFE | SEPTEMBER 2021
www.LiveLocalMagazines.com
