Petersburg’s shotgun shooting team are officially state champions. The Devil’s Thumb Shooters took home first place at the 2025 Youth Education in Shooting Sports championship in Anchorage. The championship took place from June 2-7.
Listen here:
Friends and family flocked to the airport to welcome home and congratulate the team. Shortly after, fire trucks and cars paraded them on a victory lap through town.
The shooters competed in a variety of events at the tournament, including trap, skeet, and wobble shooting. All are different ways of shooting at moving clay targets.
Trent Kittams recently graduated high school and has been with the club for eight years. He scored the highest overall on the team and said a win like this is a big deal for the group.
“That was the first time our club actually won that, which is pretty sweet to go out on for my senior year,” said Kittams.
Tyson Reid is a high school junior. He’s only been with the team for two seasons, but he hit a big milestone this week.
“I did shoot 25 straight. That would be a perfect round without a single miss,” he said. “So then I threw my hat in the air, and the entire legion of people shot at it. And yeah, it was pretty cool.”
Reid was one of two members on the team who scored a perfect round at the tournament.
The athletes worked hard to get to state. Head coach Larry O’Rear said it took a lot of shooting and fundraising to make it this far.
So, what’s next for the Devil’s Thumb Shooters?
“They’re all excited and ready to start shooting again right away!” O’Rear said.
He said that the team will take a few months off, and then they’ll start shooting again in the fall.
