Sporting clays and other shooting sports are becoming popular at gun clubs and now on the high school level. The Benedictine Military School Clay Shooting Sport team and Forest City Gun Club Junior (FCGC) sport shooting teams in which have been very successful over the past five years.
The FCGC team has won back-to-back Georgia State Scholastic Clay Target 
championships. Benedictine has finished in the top three in the Georgia Independent School Association Clay Sport championships the past two seasons. There are a lot of very good middle school and high school clay shooters in the area. By the way that's boys and girls. One shooter who has been on target is a recent graduate of Benedictine Military School, Jake Summerford who has been on top of his game since he began sport shooting.
Jake began Sport Shooting with his dad. Summerford said, “My dad (Lee) shoots a lot at the Forest City Gun Club and started taking me with his buddies when I was a little kid. I was soon just part of the group, and I got to learn from some of the best shooters in the area. I have a lot of fun in the process. I started competing in middle school and loved the competition.”
Shooting for Benedictine this past fall, Jake defended his GISA 2018 High Overall Individual Champion title to claim back-to-back state champion honors. The Benedictine Clay Sport Shooting team at the 2019 GISA Clay Sport State Championships finished as the state runner-up and captured third place in 2018. Summerford received GISA All-State first team honors in 2019.
Shooting for the Forest City Juniors sport team, Jake has been a big part of the Georgia State Scholastic Clay Target Program (SCTP) 2020 and 2019 State Championship teams. Summerford earned 2020 All-State honors in Skeet and Sporting Clays Shooting. Jake shot a perfect 100 in the SCTP Skeet shooting competition. Jake has even more career accomplishments which are as follows: the 2020 St. Simons Islands Seminole Cup Class A Champion, 2019 Junior US Open Sporting Clays Runner-Up, 2018 Seminole Cup Class D Champion, and the 2018 South Georgia Trifecta Class D Champion.
Summerford states “My dad, has had the most influence on my shooting career. He and Coach Zac Guerrettaz formed the Forest City Juniors team, which I have been on since it started in 2014. They also started the Benedictine Sport Shooting Team, which gave me a chance to compete year-round and really grow in the sport. My dad taught me a little bit about shooting along the way.” Jake appreciates his coaches and his coaches appreciate him. Summerford’s coaches said, “Jake is fearless, which makes him a tremendous asset to the team in clutch situations.”
Jake stated, “I have been a successful athlete because I have good eyes and good hands, which help a lot in sport shooting. I’ve also had excellent coaches and mentors and put in a lot of hard work. At this point, it’s second nature. I don’t get nervous or think too much, I just shoot.”
Summerford will attend Georgia College & State University in the fall and will be on the Bobcats Clay Target Team.
