SSCS Clay Target Team End of Season

Coach Cori Bissonette with Levi Knapp who received the “Top Male” Award at the 11-8 Awards Ceremony for this season

Coaches with Caiden Castle who received the “Most Improved” Award at the 11-8 Awards Ceremony in Sharon Springs

By Alexis Pencar

SHARON SPRINGS — The Sharon Springs Central School Clay Target Team has come in second place this Fall season! They are the first Clay Target Team in Schoharie County and after a strong last Spring Season, they are now in Class 1A Conference 12. They celebrated this great accomplishment for their student athletes with an awards ceremony on 11/8/25.

Their new Class 1A Conference 12 (based on team size) includes Pioneer High School, Morristown Central High School, Livonia High School, and Monticello High School. There are 13 different conferences participating this season.

Sharon Springs Central School Clay Target Team’s last Competition shoot was held on Saturday, October 25th and the full and final results are in:

Overall Team Standings:

#1 Pioneer High School - 4606.50

#2 Sharon Springs - 4179.00

#3 Morristown Central - 3612.50

#4 Livonia High School - 3430.00

#5 Monticello High School - 2447.00

Top 100 Overall Average (out of 3,000+ in state): #54 Levi Knapp 22.70

Top 25 Males in our 5 - school conference: #4 Levi Knapp 22.70, #11 Leland Ryder 21.60, #13, Jackson Ryder 21.50, #14 Reed VanValkenburg 21.40, #17 Sean Shults 21.20, #19 Ryatt Tompson 20.90, #21 Hunter Bolster 20.80., and #25 Aaden Dennis 20.50.

Top 25 Females in our 5 - school conference: #4 Ava Bissonette 19.10 & #9 Alyssum Butler 13.60

Team Banquet Breakdown from the Coaches:

WHAT A NIGHT! Saturday night November 8th we held our end of season banquet and awards ceremony to celebrate the team! We are proud to share that we ended this season in 2nd place in our conference with some of our kids placing top in our conference and the state.

We started the evening with a yummy dinner of Chicken broccoli Alfredo, Spaghetti & meatballs, Ziti with sausage and Macaroni n cheese, along with salads and lots of garlic bread, all provided by Country Cafe Lexi Ryder of Schoharie. Thank you, Lexi!

We also had wonderful appetizers including the ever-favorite Chicken wings made and provided by Coach Dave VanValkenburg and parent Tony Clemente. This is the 2nd fall banquet these guys have made and provided the incredibly popular chicken wings, and the kids and adults all love them!!! Thank you, guys, for this!

After dinner we moved right into desserts and awards!! We started by thanking and honoring some of our team PREMIER sponsors that were in attendance that night; Chad Evans with C. Evans Customs, Owen and Missy Potter with Fieldridge Farms, Aaron and Jenna France with Double A Customs, and Matt and Kelly Shults with Golden Ridge Farm - we gifted each of them their banner that hung all year at Sprout Brook Rod and Gun Club signed by all of our team members, along with a framed picture of our team. Every one of our premier sponsors will be getting theirs this coming week! We can’t thank each of you enough and as I always say we could not do this without any of you!

We then moved onto our top shooters for the season! 1ST PLACE was awarded to Levi Knapp - Levi also placed 4th/125 kids in our conference and 57th/1198 kids in the entire state of NY! His season average was 22.7. 2ND PLACE was awarded to Leland Ryder - Leland also placed 13th/125 kids in our conference and 138th/1198 kids in the entire state of NY! His season average was 21.6. 3RD PLACE was awarded to Jackson Ryder - Jackson also placed 16th/125 kids in our conference, and 143rd/1198 kids in the entire state. His season average was 21.5. 4TH PLACE was awarded to Reed VanValkenburg. Reed also placed 17th/125 kids in our conference, and 148th/1198 kids in the entire state. His season average was 21.4. 5TH PLACE was awarded to Sean Shults. Sean also placed 20th/125 kids in our conference, and 161st/1198 kids in the entire state. His season average was 21.2.

Awards:

Top Female awarded to Ava Bissonette. Top Male awarded to Levi Knapp. Most Improved awarded to Caiden Castle. TEAM Award: this award is voted on solely by the team members only. They vote on someone they feel represents everything our team stands for, integrity, kindness, helping out when needed, a good role model and doing the right thing even when no one is looking; this season's recipient was awarded to LEVI KNAPP!

Each team member also received their certificate with their personal stats and medallion. Thank you gifts were handed out to people that made a difference this season and beyond, in many different ways, we were so happy to present gifts to: Renee Knapp, Cassandra and Fred Perrotti, and Tony Clemente.The team presented the FALL SEASON 2025 Team plaque to Dan Clancy, President of Sprout Brook Rod and Gun Club. Dan is and always has been our team's BIGGEST Advocate and we can’t do it without him and his support. Thank you Dan!

After the awards and gifts were presented we moved on to drawing all of our meat raffle winners while on Facebook live we sold 1037 tickets together with Sprout Brook Rod And Gun Club. Thank you to every single person who purchased a ticket and helped support our team.

Our grand prize winner was Jenn Kiernan!!!! HUGE congratulations Jenn!

After Jenn’s name was drawn, we continued to draw 13 other winning names and those winners were: Ray Kiefl, Chris Olsen, Danielle Easton, Samantha Moyster, Don Vanderwerker, Randy Hemstreet, Bob and Eileen, Tony Moschetti, Wendy Oulette, Jeff Almy, Wayne Durand, Dawn Zuefle, and Chris and Betty Sanders!!!!!

Overall it was an absolutely wonderful evening and another fabulous season for this team and these kids!!! The team now takes a couple of months off through the Holidays and will be kicking back off 2026 in February! Stay tuned!

Interested in finding out more about the team? Check them out on Facebook at SSCS Clay Target Team or even on Youtube @SSCSclaytaget. Any and all are welcome to support this hard working team!