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Hunting Hills team aims at title

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Greene County’s Hunting Hills is starting to make a name for itself as not only one of the premiere Scholastic Clay Target Programs in the state, but also in the nation.
After starting a program in 2009, the Hawkeyes have won several state titles, and this summer, a sixth-grade team finished third in its age bracket at a national competition.
Robby Dillon of German Township, Cole Jones of Jefferson and Ivan Pavick of Jefferson traveled to the Cardinal Shooting Center in Marengo, Ohio, to compete in a two-day shoot with hundreds of kids from across the country in the sporting clays division. The competitions are substantial, with approximately 1.5 million rounds fired at the tournament between the trap, skeet and sporting clays brackets.
“All three of them are good shots,” said Charles Mallory, the Hawkeyes head coach. “They’re all three excellent young men.”
Dillon and Jones were on a team together that finished first at states in June, as the two finished first and second, respectively. Pavick was on a different team at states, finishing fourth in the competition before joining Dillon and Jones at nationals.
The two teams to finish ahead of the Hawkeyes in the intermediate entry bracket were from Florida and Georgia. Individually, Dillon and Jones finished sixth and eighth, respectively. Dillon was one shot away from medaling while Jones missed out by only three shots.
“The biggest thing with these kids is their ability to focus,” said Tim Jones, Cole Jones’ father. “It’s very stressful, because everything out there at the nationals is a little harder. Every time they got up there, they hung in there. That’s why they got where they got.”
Pavick said he was feeling the pressure early on in the national tournament but that he settled in as it went along.
“If you’re the first one up, then you don’t know what anyone else is going to shoot,” Pavick said. “If you’re last and someone clears all of them on that station, then it’s a lot of pressure.”
Sporting clays, which Tim Jones described as “golf with a 12-gauge shotgun,” is different than trap or skeet shooting. Rather than target practice, sporting clays is a game of unpredictability.
Shooters step up to about 15 different stations and will usually have six targets, called “birds,” to hit, and they will come from all angles, heights, speeds and distances. Each round totals 100 shots and each hit bird counts as one point.
Pavick shoots in the mid 70s, Cole Jones in the low 80s and Dillon in the mid to high 80s.
“This sport keeps you disciplined,” Cole Jones said. “Because if you act up or get mad at yourself, the coaches are going to bring you over to your cart and talk to you about it.”
The way all three boys, each in seventh grade, started competing in sporting clays couldn’t be more different.
Mallory said Dillon was seemingly born a gifted shooter and started at Hunting Hills, located in Dilliner, a year early as a second grader.
“Robby started in second grade. Really young and really small, and a lot of people didn’t think he’d be able to handle the gun,” Mallory said. “Robby’s been at it the longest, and he’s a very good shot.”
Dillon has been a state champion since he was 9 years old and competed individually at nationals last year. He thinks he can keep improving at the national level.
“I want to be a national champion,” he said.
Earlier this year, he won $1,000 at the Hardy Classic competition at Nemacolin Country Club, beating out several older kids and adults.
“That was awesome,” Dillon said. “That was probably one of my better shoots.”
Cole Jones comes from a family that doesn’t shoot, but he started three years ago. Mallory said it’s not common for someone to be at the level Jones is without coming from a family of avid shooters.
“It was all new to him, and he pays very close attention to everything you tell him,” Mallory said. “If you tell him to do something, he’ll do it. That’s one of the things that’s brought him to the front so fast.”
Pavick, comes from a hunting family and started sporting clays two years ago.
“My dad’s always been a hunter for birds, and he wanted me to be a good shot,” Pavick said.
After Hunting Hills owners Sally and Roy Sisler were granted permission to start a Scholastic Clay Target Program in 2009, nearly 30 kids signed up. Now, more than 60 kids participate in six age classifications.
More than 20 people volunteer to coach the kids, with Mallory as the head coach and Randy Coss as assistant head coach.
“Other than being a terrific group of young people, they’re well respected everywhere we go,” Mallory said of his shooters. “Their course etiquette and the way they take care of themselves and present themselves when we go to the state shoot, everybody looks up to them. They are just great.”
Dillon’s father, Rob Dillon, said Hunting Hills is a “phenomenal place” and praised the coaches for the way they work with the kids.
“All of the coaches there are great,” Rob Dillon said. “I couldn’t ask for better coaches for my son.”