Top gun – Albion’s Tommy Fox among leading high school clay target shooters in state
Photos by Tom Rivers: Tommy Fox will compete next week in the national clay target championship in Ohio.
ALBION – A member of the clay target shooting team at Albion is among the top performers in the state. Tommy Fox, 18, will compete next week in the national championships in Marengo, Ohio.
Fox just graduated from Albion. He finished his senior season ranked first in his conference and 15th overall in the state. He averaged hitting 23.6 clay targets out of 25 shots over the course of the season for school teams. (Jeffrey Paes of Coxsackie-Athens High School and Andrew Stratton of Hoosick Falls tied for first with a season average of 24.4 out of 25 targets.)
Noah St. John of Holley also made the All-State Team with an average of 22.7 targets hit. Two from Genesee County also made All-State: Michael Covert of Le Roy with a 22.9 average and Brayden Smith of Elba at 22.5.
Fox, the son of Tom and Jill Fox, also is a member of the Orleans County Clay Crushers and finished fourth in the state during the scholastic competition on June 10. He hit 96 out of 100 targets.
Tommy Fox finished fourth in the state out of 227 shooters in the state scholastic championship, hitting 96 out of 100 targets.
Mason Tomaszewski of Fredonia and Micah Armstrong took first hitting 98 out of 100. Fox was fourth out of 227 shooters that day. Another Albion clay target shooter, Caden Uderitz, also had a good day at the state tournament, hitting 90 out of 100 targets.
Fox has been on the Albion school team since it started in 2019. He has consistently been among the team’s top guns, but took it to a higher level this season, including 97 out of 100 at one competition.
“He has very good hand-eye coordination, and he is very relaxed on the line,” said Jeff Atwell, one of the coaches for the school team and also the Clay Crushers. “He doesn’t let anything bother him.”
Fox started shooting clay discs at age 12. Even as a beginner he was hitting in the 30s out of 50. By 14, he could consistently break 45 out of 50.
“It’s something to do that is fun,” Fox said. “It’s hard to nail every one of them.”
The clay discs are about 4 inches in diameter. They fly out of a machine at 42 miles per hour. They are sent left and right at varying angles. The shooters fire shotguns from several different spots during the competitions.
Tommy said he tries to stay focused, and reacts. If he misses one, he doesn’t dwell on it, and goes after the next one. He shoots with a Browning BT-99 Plus trap shotgun.
Atwell said Fox is “coachable” and listens to advice – and learns from mistakes to keep getting better.
“He’s a pretty talented kid,” Atwell said. “I think he has the ability to break a lot of targets at some big events.”
The Albion team and Orleans County Clay Crushers compete at the Barre Sportsmen’s Club for the regular season matches. Fox went to Fulton for the state scholastic competition at the Pathfinder Fish & Game Club. Another big match was at Cicero.
Tommy Fox works at TF Enterprise, his father’s metal fabrication business on Route 98. He is a CNC programmer and machinist. He also enjoys fishing, especially for bass.
He thanked his coaches for all of their help and support, a group that includes Jeff Atwell, Chris Rice, Mike Donahue, Ryan Uderitz and Patrick Woodworth.
