February 2, 2008
For more information
Contact: David Ewald, 612-490-2650

Youth vs Sport Legends Celebrity Clay Shoot
Arizona’s Best Young Talent to be featured at Gander Mountain Sponsored Event

ST. PAUL – Today Arizona’s young shooters will face off against sporting legends at a clay target shooting event at the Arizona Game and Fish Department’s Ben Avery Clay Target Center.  Gander  Mountain, the leading outdoors sports retailer in the United States, is sponsoring the participation of 16 of the best young shooters in the state of Arizona at the Legends Celebrity Invitational Sporting Clays presented by NRA Sports & Gander Mountain.

“Gander Mountain is proud to co-sponsor the event and sponsor the participation of some of Arizona’s best young shooting talent,” said Mark Baker, CEO of Gander Mountain.  “Our company wants to help young people to be involved in hunting and the shooting sports.  The shooting clubs are a great place for them to learn both shooting skills and firearm safety.”

The young shooters will participate in the event along side such great NFL legends as Dave Krieg from the Seattle Seahawks, Dave Butz from the Washington Redskins and Seth Joyner of Philadelphia Eagle and Arizona Cardinals fame.  Other sports legends attending include NHL Legends Reed Larson and Claude Lemeiux, and Andy Walker, a PGA golfer.  Brandon Webb, starting pitcher for the Arizona Diamondbacks will also be on hand to show his skills at shooting clay targets.

The Scholastic Clay Target Program, a program of the National Shooting Sports Foundation, selected young shooters from the program from all corners of Arizona. Attending the event are youths ages 11 to 17, (including five girls) who are active in their local shooting clubs. Many are championship shooters and have the potential to one day be Olympic competitors.

"It's great to see Arizona's SCTP shooters getting a chance like this to show off their talents," said Zach Snow of NSSF. "SCTP is very popular in Arizona and has one of the program's highest levels of participation in the country. These young shooters will certainly give their competitors a challenge."

Nationwide, more than 24,000 youths in grade school through high school have participated in SCTP since its first season in 2000.  

For more information, contact David Ewald at 612-490-2650.

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For more information about Gander Mountain go to: www.gandermountain.com

For more information about the Scholastic Clay Target Program and the National Shooting Sports Foundation go to: www.nssf.org/sctp/

For more information about the Arizona Game and Fish Department’s Ben Avery Clay Target Center go to: www.azgfd.gov/ctc2