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 2009 PSSA State Shoot
June 13-21
Elysburg, PA

Elysburg, PA, June 21, 2009: One of the wettest state shoots in history is now in the books. Donald Neilson (left) of Oaks, PA won the singles and doubles titles and broke all 500 singles during championship week. He also ended up with 8 awards. Stephen Ollock, 2009 HOF inductee, won his third HOA title, five targets better than second place finisher Joe Pascoe. Skip Klinger (right), PSSA Vice-President, took home his first HAA award. Kim Bateman broke 200x200 to win the ladies singles trophy and won her first HAA, setting the ladies state record. She amassed 12 awards. Stephanie Sandler won 15 trophies including the ladies HOA and doubles title, her sixth. Stephen Todak won the handicap title with a field high 98x100. Cody Davis took home 10 junior trophies including the junior HAA and HOA and also earned the Class A award in the Attorney General Cup. Cody is a 4 time All American. Former Grand American Handicap champions Bill Petras and William Hazlett win important trophies.   Details

David Dyer
June 2009 PA Game News

What a pleasant surprise when I opened the June 2009 Pennsylvania Game News. A full page devoted to our own David Dyer, a PSSA line referee for many years and just a wonderful person to be around and talk to. He was selected the Northeast Region Hunter Education Instructor of the Year. Teaching comes naturally for David, he was once a teacher and administrator in the Columbia Area School District. Full Story

 2009 Keystone Open
Elysburg, PA
May 15-17-2009

Elysburg, PA, May 17, 2009: Unpleasant weather again plagued the Keystone Open. Rain, cold and windy conditions hampered shooters for the three day run of the 19th renewal of one of the top shoots on the East Coast. Skip Klinger of Lebanon, the PSSA Vice-President, broke the only 200 in the field to win his first Keystone Open singles  title. Phil Boinske won his second Keystone Open doubles title with a perfect century, the only one to post a perfect score. Phil won the title back in 2007. Stephen Lieberman (left) of Wyomissing, PA won the Handicap in a three way shoot-off of 97's. Michael Blaisdell won the HAA by a single target over David Shaeffer while  Brad Heath was three targets better than Chris Vendel for the HOA. Debbie Neilson Ohye won 4 of the 5 major ladies titles. Full Story

Douglas Bogolea
1943-2009

We are saddened to announce the unexpected passing of Douglas E. Bogolea on May 15th 2009. Born on December 24, 1943 and raised in Beaver County located outside of Pittsburgh, at the time of his death he lived in Harmony Pennsylvania. Doug was an avid trap shooter and was especially proud of attaining the ATA ranking of a 27 yard shooter. In his shooting career he registered over 100,000 birds and won many awards. In his last tournament at the Pennsylvania Western Zone Shoot at Ruffsdale Pa, on May 10th, just five days before his death, Doug took home the trophy as open Vet. It was the first shoot that Doug participated in as a Vet. Complete Obituary

 2009 PSSA Eastern Zone Shoot
Reading, PA
May 9-10-2009

Reading, PA, May 10, 2009: The 45th annual Pennsylvania Eastern Zone shoot was held at the South End Gun Club in Reading, PA on May 9-10, 2009. Sunny skies greeted the shooters for both days but windy conditions on Sunday lowered all the scores across the board. In a two man shootoff for the coveted singles crown, Marty Stover bested Doug Jones (left) after each broke 199's. Larry Shade broke a field high 95 in the wind to gain the handicap title while Steve Huber also broke a field high 97 to win the doubles title, his second. Phil Boinske broke a 96 to pick up the AA title. Huber won the HAA with a 388 and Steven Ross was second with a 378. Full Story
 Note: Officials of the PSSA Western Zone shoot did not send the PSSA web-site the results of their shoot. Thus no scores have been published.

State Director Needed For The
ATA's AIM Youth Program.
May 3, 2009

ESTABLISH YOUR TRAPSHOOTING LEGACY.
HELP PENNSYLVANIA'S
TRAPSHOOTING FUTURE.

Elysburg, PA, May 3, 2008: We still need a state director to coordinate and oversee the development of our ATA AIM program in Pennsylvania. We still do not have a state director for this important youth program. Help out the ATA and especially the PSSA and youth trapshooting in Pennsylvania. Youth shooters are our future if our sport in Pennsylvania is to continue to flourish in the years ahead. The AIM program is the bridge to a bigger and better ATA which will benefit all shooters. Contact Chuck Fritzges or Frank Pascoe for details. 

 The momentum with AIM, the Official Youth Program of the ATA, is accelerating across the USA and Canada – watch Aim4ata.com as more AIM State/Provincial Directors come on board.

Your AIM State/Provincial Director is your local resource for information about AIM. However WE CURRENTLY DO NOT HAVE A STATE DIRECTOR for the largest trapshooting state in America. 

PSSA Notes
Elysburg, PA, April 10, 2009:

(1) PSSA is searching for a State Director for the ATA's AIM youth program. Anyone interested in becoming the state director should contact PSSA's ATA delegate, Frank Pascoe at frankpascoe@pascoebuilders.com. Information about the AIM program can be found on the ATA website, shootata.com.

(2) Free shooting available at PSSA home grounds. PSSA has begun training new scorers. Practice is held from 6:00 till 7:45 pm on Mondays and Thursdays (weather permitting - we do classwork inside if it is raining). There is no cost for targets and you will be assisting PSSA in the preparation of scorers. 

2009 PSSA Shoot Program
Feb 18, 2009

Elysburg, PA, Sept. 5-7, 2008: Click here for the 2009 PSSA Shoot Program. The program will be mailed to shooters shortly. If you fail to get a program in the mail or desire one please contact Chuck Fritzges here. The PSSA has developed a wonderful shooting season at Elysburg this season including the Keystone Open, Colonial Classic, PA State Shoot, PA Grand, ATA Eastern Zone and the Westy Hogans. Pre squadding forms and online pre squadding can be found here. Make your travel plans early. Motels and PSSA Camping.  Directions to Homegrounds

PSSA Shoot Calendar
2009

The PSSA shoot calendar at the bottom of this page has the new year up and running. Club officers are urged to use this calendar to publicize your shoots as many view this calendar......... 

2009 PA State Shoot
~June 13-21, 2009~

It's not too early to make plans for the Pennsylvania State Shoot in June. The Colonial Classic starts on Saturday, June 13 and ends Sunday. The State Shoot than starts on Monday and runs through Sunday, June 21. Camping and vendor information can be four here. Area motel information can be found here. Our shoot program will be available on our web site as soon as its is available. For those using a GPS to find the PSSA home grounds, the address to use is 405 Monastery Road, Elysburg PA 17824.
Directions to Homegrounds

2008 Average and Target Attainment Records
December 25, 2008

By this time of the year I usually have all the average and target attainment records  from the previous year listed on this site. I no longer have access to this information so I, like the rest of you, will have to wait for the official averages to be published in the Trap & Field average book, which will be available in one or two months. Once the book arrives I will give recognition to all our leading average shooters with a special page. To see the previous years averages and target attainment icons, click here for attainment records and here for averages, than look at the right hand column. Please, no more emails on this subject. 

History of ATA Satellite Grand's
December 23, 2008

Today there are ten ATA Satellite Grand's spread all across America. The stated purpose of these shoots was to make Grand American style and trophy  shoots available to ATA members all around the United States. The very first of these shoots, the "Spring Grand," was first held in Arizona in 1977. The newest one is the "Heartland Grand" which started this year. Kay Ohye holds the record with 85 major Satellite Grand titles. Ray Stafford is second with 54 titles. Leo Harrison III is third with 49.

	Alphabetical list of all winners, 1977-2008
	List of winners by year, 1977-2008

2008 Elysburg Trophy Winners
December 22, 2008

The PSSA awarded about 877 trophies in their 4 major shoots at Elysburg during the 2008 shooting season (Keystone Open, State Shoot, PA Grand and Westy Hogans). To the surprise of no one, the leading trophy winners were also 2009 ATA All Americans. Stephanie Sandler walked away with 27 trophies while Matt Bozart and Sheldon Hostetter won 21 each. Dylan Darhower won 16 and Cody Davis took home 13. Bruce Edgreen and Kory Shissler each won 12 awards. All are on the 2009 All American Teams.
Click here for all trophy winners. Don't forget to rotate your page clockwise.

2009 All American Teams
December 18, 2008

Pennsylvania led all states in All American selections with 11 Keystone state gunners selected. First team selections included Stephanie Sandler (Women), Dylan Darhower (Sub Junior) and Sheldon Hostetter (Vet). Others who earned selections were Frank Pascoe, Donald Neilson, Kory Shissler, Matt Bozart, Cody Davis, Kyle Weber, Joe Alsippi and Bruce Edgreen.
Full Story 

2008 Pennsylvania High Average Leaders
Andrew Zborovsky leads state singles again!
December 7, 2008

The PSSA announces the official ATA high average leaders for 2008. For the second straight year Andrew Zborovsky (left) led the state men in singles with a .9918 average on 3400 targets. Kim Bateman led the ladies with an average of .9760 on 2500 targets. Jack Aldridge led the men in handicap with a .9408 average on 2400 targets while Stephanie Sandler led the state women with .9219 on 4,250 targets.  Sandler (7th straight year) also led the ladies in doubles with a .9543 average on 3700 targets while Ken Darroch (11th time) led the men with .9794 on 1800 targets. Also, the state teams are now official. Corrections will no longer be considered. 

2009 All State Teams
November 21, 2008

Click here for a pdf file of the 2009 Pennsylvania All State Teams. These teams are now official. Ken Darroch is the men's captain for the 11th time, Stephanie Sandler is the women's captain for the 5th times, Matt Bozart is the Junior/Sub-Junior captain for the first time, John Minjock is the first time Vet captain and Ralph Challingsworth is the first time Senior Vet captain.  Team Pages  

Pennsylvania State Trapshooting Records
Through October 6, 2008

Click here to view a pdf file with all the current PSSA historical trapshooting record holders as researched and maintained by PA Hall of Fame founder and historian Richard Hamilton. In 1996 Hamilton wrote a 200 page book on the history of the PSSA. The book sold out within hours at the 1996 state shoot. Also all PSSA officers here and all Pennsylvania All Americans here. Errata or suggestions should be pointed out to the webmaster, Richard Hamilton.

2008 Westy Hogans
September 5-7, 2008
Elysburg, PA

Elysburg, PA, Sept. 5-7, 2008: With the remnants of Hurricane Hannah producing an all day rain on Saturday, the Westy Hogans Singles Championship was won by Craig Gasparine of Lake Parsippany, NJ with a 200 straight. It was Craig's first Hogans title. Brad Heath of Binghamton, NY finished second with a 200 also. Pennsylvania Vets Sheldon Hostetter and James Blevins also broke 200's, finishing first and second in the Vet Class. Joe Pascoe of New Castle won the Doubles title with a 99 over Robert Malmstedt of NJ. Robert won the Handicap with a field high 99 and the HAA with a 397. Kay Ohye won the HOA. Malmstedt won the HAA back in 2002. For Ohye, this was his 11th HOA title. Malmstedt tied Chris Vendel for the Hogans record in the HAA with his 397. Linda Loughran (left) won the Lady of America title, awarded on the 100 Singles and 100 Handicap on the first day. She broke 195x200, eight targets better than runner-up Donna Natcher. Linda was also a Hogans trophy winner in 2006 and 2007. Scores

2008 Grand American
SANDLER WINS RECORD 17 TROPHIES
August 6-16, 2008
Sparta, IL

Sparta, IL, Aug. 6-16, 2008: With the conclusion of the 2008 Grand American, Pennsylvania gunners came home with a state record 57 trophies. Stephanie Sandler (right) won 17 trophies, more than any lady shooter at the Grand American. According to PSSA records, she has won 39 Grand American trophies in her short career. Her haul will guarantee Stephanie a spot on the 2009 All American Team. Frank Pascoe, PA State Delegate, took home six trophies. Joe Alsippi, a senior vet from Avonmore won four awards included the coveted Senior Vet HAA. Winning three trophies was Kory Shissler. while KayLynn Hamilton Bornman, Devi Rathod and Robert LeFever each won twice. 

	Week One Winners
	Week Two Winners
	Pennsylvania Winners
	All Winners listed Alphabetical
	Pennsylvania Winners
	Preliminary Week Event Trophy Winners
	Championship Week Event Trophy Winners

2008 ATA Eastern Zone
NYSATA @ Cicero, NY
July 24-27, 2008

Cicero, NY, July 23-27, 2008: Donald Neilson won the Eastern Zone Singles title with a 200 straight. Jeff Graupp (right) broke the only 100 straight to win the Doubles while Michael Mincel won the Handicap. Joe Pascoe finished runner up. Kay Ohye won both the HAA (his 15th) and the HOA (his 17th) awards. Stephanie Sandler won the ladies HAA.    All Scores 

2008 Pennsylvania Grand
July 4-6, 2008

Elysburg, PA, June 4-6, 2008: Matt Bozart (right) of York became the first junior to ever win the PA Grand  Singles Championship when he broke a 200x200. Another junior, Benjamin Johnson of Lincoln University also smashed all 200 to win the Junior award. Other trophy winners with 200 straight include Robert Malmstedt, Doug Jones, Robert LeFever and Kay Ohye. Larry Grabowski (left) of Collegeville snared the opening Handicap at the 36th annual Pennsylvania Grand trapshooting championships with a 98x100 while  Malmstedt won the opening Singles and Urban Womer took the first day's Doubles. Brad Heath snares HAA & HOA. 1999 PA State Handicap Champion Steve Fitch wins main Handicap while Sub-Junior All American Cody Davis wins Doubles crown.   Full Story

2008 Pennsylvania State Shoot
June 7-15, 2008

Elysburg, PA, June 15, 2008: Larry Shade won his first state Singles title. He finished runner-up in 1999. Larry also won a long shootoff for the "Krieghoff Challenge." Donald Neilson won his first HAA title while Beverly Shick of Tremont won the state Handicap crown with a state field high 98. She became the first women title holder since 1984 and only the second in state history. Emilie Peters won the 1984 title with a 97x100. Ronald Kikel of Latrobe won the Doubles crown with 99x100 over Donald Feeg and Stephanie Sandler while Ken Darroch won his 11th HOA title, now ties Steve Crothers record of 11. Full Story.

2008 Keystone Open Off To Wet Start
May 16-18, 2008

Elysburg, PA, May 16-18, 2008: Elliott Watt of Johnstown broke a field high 96 to win the May Handicap on the rainy first day of the 2008 Keystone Open. New York All American Chris Vendel broke 100 straight singles to win the opening May Singles event. Brad Heath of New York won the AA award in the Doubles Class Championship with a field high 99x100. He also took home the HOA award. Phil Boinski of Blossburg finished second in AA with a 98. Ken Darroch took the first Keystone Championship by breaking a field high 100 straight to win the championship Doubles. Mark Murray was three targets better than anyone else while winning the Shriner's Handicap with a 98x100 from yardage. David Schaeffer (left) won his second straight Single titles, both with perfect 200's, while Robert Malmstedt took home the Handicap and HAA title. Complete Results

2008 PSSA Program
~March 20, 2008~

Here is a copy of the 2008 PSSA shoot program. Reading the program requires Acrobat Reader.

2008 PSSA Program

Pennsylvania Love Affair with the GAH
Preliminary Handicap
~January 18, 2008~

Over the years Pennsylvania shooters have done exceptionally well in the Preliminary Handicap at the Grand American. Take a look and see who has written their name into the record books, in this, the second largest trapshooting event in the world. Their stunning victories are how legends are made. We salute these extraordinary shooters and their historic accomplishments. Full story

Library of Congress Photo Release
~January 14, 2008~

Be sure to check out these four historical photographs just released by the Library of Congress. The photographs have never been published before showing a very young Ben Higginson and a new photo of Plinky Topperwein. 

Where did the ATA logo come from?

For years I have wondered where the famous ATA logo came from and who designed the logo. It was actually developed between 1919 and 1923 by the old industry administered American Trapshooting Association. I may have part of the answer or possibly just more questions. You decide. Click here for more information.

The Target Shooters
2007 Pennsylvania Target Leaders

With the usual suspects blasting away at record numbers of targets, we now know who led the state in 2007. For the 4^th time in 5 years Tom Ezolt led the state in total targets, blasting away at 40,050 combined targets. The late Dennis Spancake was second with 32,700. Ezolt also led the state in twin birds with 15,450. Malcolm McCord of Tyron was second with 13,200. Spancake led the commonwealth with 9,900 handicap birds while Vet James Blevins was a distant second with 8,200. Robert "Mitch" Mitchell of Clarks Summit shot at 21,000 singles targets and Ezolt finished second with 19,350. More information.

	2007 Total Combined Targets
	2007 Singles Targets
	2007 Handicap Targets
	2007 Doubles Targets

2007 PA High Average Leaders

Andrew Zborovsky of Trafford, PA led state singles shooters for the first time with a .9912 average. He was one of only two shooters in the state with a .9900 or better average. Richard Brunell of Coopersburg led in handicap averages after finishing second last season. Ken Darroch led the state in twin bird targets for the tenth time. Stephanie Sandler (right) led the state women in all three disciplines (singles, handicap and doubles) in averages. The last lady gunner to lead the state in all three events (average grand slam) was PA Hall of Famer Mary Christopher 46 years ago in 1961. Ken Darroch was the last man to lead all three, back in 1995. Click here for more information.

	2007 PA Averages for all Shooters
	Singles Leaders
	Handicap Leaders
	Doubles Leaders

What's the most famous logo in all of trapshooting? Click here to find out. 

Pennsylvania's Mr. Trapshooting
~Elmer Shaner~

Born during the second year of the Civil War in 1862, Elmer Shaner became one of the greatest figures in the history of American trapshooting. A one room school teacher from Slippery Rock, Shaner died in 1939 destitute in a  Masonic home in Elizabethtown. He left a legacy in trapshooting circles that will be remembered as long as trapshooting is around. He never shot a registered target. See our 5th in a series of great photographs of Pennsylvania trapshooting immortals. 

John Philip Sousa Pennsylvania Connections

John Philip Sousa, the "March King", is a Trapshooting HOF inductee. He shot in Pennsylvania on many occasions and he died in Reading, PA in 1932. See this wonderful photograph in the 4th of a series of old, original photographs in my personal collection. At the time of the photograph he was president of the old American Trapshooting Association. 

Ed Hellyer, 2 Time State Champion

Continuing with our Historic Pennsylvania trapshooting photographs, we have an unpublished photo of Ed Hellyer of New Alexandria, PA. Ed "The Village Miller" Hellyer won or tied for the state Singles Championship three times and was one of the most feared shooters of his time.  

J. A. R. Elliott at Honeybrook, PA

Another in a series of long lost old time trapshooting photographs, this photo shows Trapshooting HOF immortal J.A.R. Elliott shooting clay targets at Honeybrook, PA. The village is located south of Reading on PA Rt.10 in Chester County......... 

Newly Found Photos of Charlie Newcomb

PSSA & ATA Trapshooting Hall of Fame webmaster and historian Richard Hamilton has located some long lost, never published photographs of Charlie Newcomb. He is a Pennsylvania and ATA Hall of fame inductee.