Local resident is state champ

Gary Rivers of Spencerport won the New York State title in the Master Class of a shooting sport known as sporting clays. He won the title in Franklinville, New York in August.

Rivers describes the sport of shooting sporting clays as "golf with a shotgun."

"There are 16 stations all with different presentations (of the clays). It started out as a game for guys to hone their skills for hunting and now it has evolved into a game like trap or skeet. It is played in the woods using different angles and places."

Rivers says that there are different targets to simulate different games. A clay simulating a rabbit, for example, rolls on the ground. It is like skeet but is more interesting and offers tougher shots, he said.

The highest class is the Master Class, which is like a pro class, Rivers says. A person competes within a class.

Rivers started out at the Rochester Brooks Gun Club in Rush. He has been shooting competitively for 11 years. Saying that the sport came naturally to him, Rivers says that he started out near the top in the A Class.

Rivers grew up in Greece, and has lived in Spencerport for 21 years. He has a wife, Lynn, two daughters, Katrina and Kelly, and a son, Joey. He runs his own business, Gary Rivers Drywall.

Rivers says that he would like to promote the sport and get more people to try it. "People get a bad impression of guns," he says, "but my gun to me is like a baseball bat or a tennis racket - it is used for the sport." He says this sport appeals to people who like the challenge, but don't like to actually hunt.

There are 18 clubs in this area from Lockport to Painted Post to Canandaigua. These clubs offer two shoots a month from November to May.