By Bruce Knutzen | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice
This guest piece highlights the success of the Northeastern Clay Busters at the 2025 SCTP tournament. Coach Bruce Knutzen shares results and reflections from a team growing in strength and community support.
Over the weekend of June 6th, 7th, and 8th, members of the Northeastern Clay Busters SCTP team attended a three-day state tournament.
The Scholastic Clay Target Program (SCTP) is open to youth from elementary grades through college to participate in the safe, educational, and enjoyable SCTP clay target sports of American Trap, American Skeet, and Sporting Clays.
All school-age boys and girls in grades 12 and under, with the physical, mental, and emotional maturity to participate in a team sport, are eligible for the SCTP.
There is also an SCTP College Division for college-aged participants.
SCTP has multiple divisions in which youth compete, depending on their school grade: the Rookie division is for grade 5 and under; the Intermediate division is for grades 6-8; the Senior division is for grades 9-12; and the College division is for college students.
To level the playing field even more, novice athletes compete in a separate competitive grouping or category from more experienced athletes within each division.
Seven Colorado SCTP teams from all areas of the state attended this year’s state contest. This year’s attendees for the Northeastern Clay Busters included Darin Knutzen (Senior Varsity), Wesley Lewis (Senior Varsity), Cade Carlson (Senior/Jr. Varsity) of Fort Morgan, Keenan Erker (Senior/Jr. Varsity) and Parker Erker (Intermediate/Entry Level) of Wray, Ryan Potter (Intermediate/Entry Level) of Merino, and Waylon Ray (Rookie) of Joes.
Most of the youth are also members of 4-H shotgun teams or shoot amateur trap (ATA).
On Friday afternoon, June 6th, the team participated at Golden Gun Club (Watkins), shooting Skeet. Each member shot four rounds of 25 targets each for a total of 100.
The team achieved a 5th place finish in the Senior Varsity division with a score of 92, and 3rd and 6th places in the Senior/Jr. Varsity with scores of 75 and 67, respectively. They finished 6th and 10th in the Intermediate/Entry Level division with scores of 63 and 46, respectively, and 4th in the Rookie division with a score of 45.
On Saturday morning, June 7th, the team went to Kiowa Creek Sporting Clays in Kiowa/Bennett shooting at 12 stations.
Each of the 12 stations present varying angles of targets and degrees of difficulty, giving the youth a challenge.
They shoot a total of 100 targets, shooting report pairs at most stations. In the Senior Varsity division, they had a 7th place finish with a score of 74 and a 26th place finish with a score of 34.
In the Senior/Jr. Varsity division, they achieved 1st place with a score of 68 and 5th place with a score of 58.
The Intermediate division brought a 3rd place finish with a score of 61 and an 11th place finish with a score of 40. The Rookie division saw a 3rd place finish with a score of 52.
On Sunday morning, the team returned to Golden Gun Club for Trap, which seems to be their specialty as they consistently achieve great finishes.
The Senior Varsity team had a 1st place finish among men, a 2nd place overall with a score of 96/100, and a 20th place finish with a score of 81/100.
In the Senior/Jr. Varsity division, they finished 1st and 3rd with scores of 91 and 82, respectively.
The Intermediate division saw a 1st and 4th place finish with scores of 92 and 74, and the Rookie division achieved 1st place with a score of 89.
All parents and older members of the team were able to watch their two youngest shooters while they shot their rounds. The team’s 10-year-old Rookie shot his best ever with scores of 21, 22, 23, and 23 in each round of 25.
The High Over All from the three events gave them a 3rd place finish (262/300), just 11 targets short of 1st place, with additional finishes of 23rd (226/300), 29th (216), 31st (215), 41st (186), 44th (172), and 48th (160), out of a total of 63 shooters.
The team brought home a belt buckle, four first-place medals, one second-place medal, three third-place medals, and three gift cards totaling $110.
The Northeastern Clay Busters are coached by Bruce Knutzen, with assistance from Daniel Ray, Travis Bullock, and Scott Potter, all parents of some of the shooters.
The team was formed in 2016 and has seen varying degrees of participation through the years. This year, the coach believes, was their best, with shooters in every division participating in all three disciplines.
All the kids love to shoot, and the parents are great supporters of the team.
We would like to thank our supporters this year, including R.A.D.S. (Blake & Megan Alt), Wylie’s Custom Garage (Justin Wylie), Bruce & Beverly Knutzen, and the Washington County Shooting Club, where the kids do most of their practicing, as well as the Shooting Stars 4-H Club.
Editor’s note: Opinions expressed in commentary pieces are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the management of the Rocky Mountain Voice, but even so we support the constitutional right of the author to express those opinions.