April 16-21, 2024, Greater Houston Sports Club

By R.K. Sawyer

2024 was the first year that Greater Houston Sports Club (GHSC) hosted the Texas State Championship, officially titled the Browning-Briley Texas State Championship (BBTX State). It’s been just over a half-century since GHSC threw its first sporting clay target from a single “dove tower” set on three telephone poles at the 1983 Orvis Cup Classic. From that humble beginning with just a single “sporting clays” station, the club at this year’s BBTX State rolled out 300 machines and lobbed some 500,000 targets. They’ve come a long way!

Nine hundred and nine shooters descended on the slice of prairie south of Houston from April 16 to April 21 for what promised to be six days of fun, festivities, camaraderie and competition. The schedule was stuffed with events: Three courses for the Main, and well over a dozen other shooting contests between the Prelims, FITASC, 5-Stand, sub-gauge sporting and FITASC, side-by-side and pump guns, and then the shoot-off finale. On the social side, the evening schedule boasted a Thursday Ladies’ Snooker and cocktails, Friday’s Hall of Fame banquet, and Saturday’s Browning-Briley bash.

With overall winnings and options of $236,529, 621 trophies worth $55,000, and too many prize shotguns and sponsored gear than one could count, there was an abundance of ways to come away a winner. The Main Event carried a serious payout of $10,000 to HOA, runner-up $5,000, and third with $2,500, its winnings in line with or better than some of the national contests. Cash prizes also included Master to E-class first through sixth, the Ladies Main Event winners, and concurrents. An overstock of options was available, and the back-to-class purses were substantial. The always popular Aguila Cup Super Sporting had $50 back to class and settled at a total prize pool of just under $30,000. There were plenty of reasons to shoot straight!

The BBTX State kicked off on Tuesday with a relaxing schedule of registration, practice, and the first flight of the four-par Cedar Gap FITASC. The pulse picked up on Wednesday with the first flights of the Aguila Cup Super Sporting, Lincoln/R&R Traps 5-Stand, TSCA Hall of Fame Sporting Prelim, White Flyer Prelim, Sporting Lite Prelim, Sub-gauge Sporting, pump and side-by-side Sporting, sub-gauge FITASC, and day two of the Cedar Gap FITASC. Thursday’s events were a carbon copy of Wednesday’s but with the addition of Ladies’ Snooker and evening cocktails. The three-day Browning-Briley Main Event, consisting of 200 targets over three courses, kicked off on Friday, and the Adios Cup was held Saturday and Sunday.

On Friday, 720 contenders hit the field for the first course of the main event. It was a tight race at the end of day one, but after the second day, Gebben Miles pulled away from the pack and maintained his edge to take the open title, giving up only five of the 200 targets offered. Not including his reign in other contests, Miles added the HOA Option purse of $4,250 payout to his $10,000 HOA winnings, plus a custom-made Main Event Eagle trophy. The Main Event runner-up was decided in the shoot-offs between Zachary Kienbaum and Cory Kruse. Kruse, who took third, earned the Texas State Champion title with a pair of 189s. It’s his eighth time as crown holder! Eighty-three Lady shooters competed for the Main Event title, the champion Karen Miles (184), runner-up Savanna Barks (179), and third-place Madison Sharpe (173).

The competition featured three sporting clay Prelim events. Flags with the names of all 38 Texas Hall of Famers adorned the TSCA Hall of Fame Prelim, the event won by Tennessean Wendell Cherry with a perfect 100, with runner-up Cory Kruse (98), and Joseph Pinchin in third with a 97. The White Flyer 12-Gauge Prelim was a true-pair offering, the lead closely contested between champion Mathew Lorio and runner-up Thomas Nasser, both with a 96, and third-place Alan Ailles, who was only a target behind. Dominic Grossi, the 2023 Texas State Champion, won the Sporting Lite Prelim with a perfect score, followed closely by a pair of 99s shot by runner-up Clayton Nance and Bruce Hoger in third.

The Aguila Cup Super Sporting was a nail-biter that ended in a three-way tie between champion Dominic Grossi, runner-up Joseph Franizzi, and third-place Lane Picklo, each with a 96. Karen Miles won it for the Ladies with a 92, three targets in front of runner-up Meagan Grossi. The Saturday and Sunday Adios Cup Sporting laurels went to Lane Picklo (97), 2022 Texas Hall of Fame inductee runner-up Travis Mears (96), and third-place Scott Halcomb (96). For the Ladies, Madison Sharpe took the champion spot, Kennedy Thompson wasrunner-up, and Harlee Alexander finished third.

The combined small-gauge Sporting HOA was earned by Jerry Rackley, whose 277 was only a single target in front of runner-up Lee Delaume, with Kirk Cleere (273) in third. Ansley Johnston sailed to the top for the Ladies with 262, her nearest competitor runner-up Tricia Kocurek, down seven targets. Valerie Moore took the third spot with 230.

There were familiar names again in the top three spots of the Cedar Gap FITASC. Gebben Miles’ 91 took the championship honors after a shoot-off with runner-up Zachary Kienbaum, with third-place Austin Kiemsteadt just a single target behind. The sub-gauge FITASC events were a tie-breaker in the 20-gauge with a pair of 47s shot by champion Ryan Turpin and runner-up Phil Gamble. Jacque Portier took the 28-gauge championship outright with a 46. The 5-Stand competition, sponsored by Lincoln/R&R Traps, had 417 shooters, the top spot going to triple crown winner Gebben Miles (99), runner-up Austin Kiemsteadt with 98, and third to Cameron Hicks (97).

Festivities concluded on Sunday with the Zoli-sponsored cash-for-class shoot-offs, its format a GHSC tradition of skeet doubles “miss and out.” Next was the event shoot-offs, and the BBTX State was a wrap when the winners, and new Texas State Resident Champion Cory Kruse, took to the podium at the awards ceremony under a barrage of confetti.

The weather largely cooperated for the fun-filled six-day competition. From Tuesday to Saturday morning, the weather was balmy with calm mornings, bright gray skies with a little sun, and afternoon southeast winds that mostly stayed under 15 mph. All eyes were on Saturday’s front, which sounded ominous with possible hail and flooding. The front pushed through during the night and Sunday dawned cloudy and cool with blustery north winds. If Sunday’s wind created any new target challenges, it wasn’t reflected in the top shooter’s scores.

Target setting was the responsibility of GHSC’s Mike Boire, the assistant tournament director and lead target setter, Henry Velazquez, who sets for GHSC and the Nationals, Jason Menke of Briley, and Brent Flemmings, who was invited to set the Aguila Cup Super Sporting. Mike talked about his approach to the different course levels before the shoot, and it’s clear that a lot of thought went into his final product. He explains that the club’s goal for the tournament was to set targets for every skill level. “Too hard chases them away,” he said, “but if there is a balance, and everyone has fun, they’ll be back.” Mike added that he made every course a little different, with the philosophy behind each more than just its degree of difficulty. When we talked, I heard words like “art and variety,” “transition, speed, and angles,” and strategies like deciding the order of easy and harder stations, such as: “Putting ’em out of position for the second target of a challenging pair, then bringing ’em back with a confidence builder on the next one.”

As always, the tournament was about more than just targets and scores. The Thursday evening Texas State Ladies Snooker shoot-off at the pavilion was the first highlight of the BBTX State social schedule. The top eight ladies were back at the end of the qualifying rounds on Thursday for the honors and cash of winning the single-elimination brackets. Oysters and cocktails rounded out the fun event.

Friday’s target busting concluded with the Texas Sporting Clays Association (TSCA) Hall of Fame program. 2024 marks the 20^th year of the Texas Hall of Fame, and its success was celebrated on the shooting field and off. Flags from the Hall of Fame Prelim event were moved to the front of the pavilion, its inside decorated with the contents of two giant box trucks donated by River Oaks Plant House. During a dinner of prime rib, the giant video screen behind the speaker’s podium featured a slideshow submitted by the families of the two new 2024 blue jacket inductees, Edward V. Arrighi and Mark R. Tipton. TSCA president Ben McAnally made the event particularly memorable with an invitation to all its illustrious alumni to attend the 20^th-anniversary gala.

Saturday evening was the Browning-Briley bash, and it was a celebration. The well-stocked bar was made of ice sporting a carving of the BBTX State logo, and another ice sculpture with the GHSC logo was covered in mounds of shrimp appetizers. The main entree was boiled crawfish, and the 400 or so party-goers consumed most of 2,700 pounds — that’s nearly one and a half tons — of the red crustacean. Then came the Briley Bingo, emceed by Briley’s John Barnes, who charmed the players with both his wit and the prize quality — at the top of the list were Browning Citori 725s and White Lightnings. The evening ended with seven additional Browning shotgun drawings from each of the registered classes.

It’s a cinch this won’t be the last time the Texas State Association will write Greater Houston Sports Club’s name into future Texas championship contests. GHSC’s Chief Operating Officer Kevin Dougherty won’t take credit for the success of the event, as he’s quick, instead, to offer the names of the sponsors and the 130 staff people who made up the registration team, referees, target setters, support staff, mechanics, cooks, the parking squad — led by “rock star and MVP Sheriff Wayne” — and a host of others who made the success possible. The BBTX State received nearly universal praise for the quality of the outcome, and Kevin was only half joking when he said that the most positive comments he received were about ice cream. The club provided a never-ending flow of free soft ice cream, and it was so popular the vendor was called back three times to refill the machine!

The membership and staff at GHSC wish to congratulate the winners of the event and extend its thanks to its partners Browning, Briley, Westside Drywall, Aguila, Stellar Bank, Cedar Gap Wealth Management, Zoli, Lincoln, RR Traps, TSCA, White Flyer, Pachuca Sporting Clays, ILEA Hair Restoration, Shoreline Contractors, FIOCCHI, Paxton Arms, Ammunation, and Armadillo Blast and Coat. The next TSCA State Championship will be held May 13 to 18, 2025, at the National Shooting Complex in San Antonio. Follow Score Chaser for more details.

Photos by Lefty Ray Chapa. Click on a photo to enlarge.