Trying to keep up with an eighth grader

One of my passions is the relatively obscure sport of competitive skeet shooting. It's a difficult game that takes a lot of practice, honing the game out at the Kern County Gun Club near Lake Buena Vista. But no matter how good you get, there's always someone better, and this weekend it was an eighth grader at Tevis Jr. High who served me a dose of humble pie. I shot (what I thought) was an impressive 98 X 100 in my class only to be bested by Rachel Shuford, a sweet Tevis kid with braces and a deadly aim who posted a 99 (pictured). Actually Rachel is not the only Shuford girl who has beaten me. Her older sister, BHS junior Emily, regularly outshoots me at skeet and in fact Emily beat everyone this weekend at the Black Gold Skeet tournament by claiming 20-gauge gun champ. Emily posted her very first 100 straight targets, meaning she ran the field without missing. Emily, Rachel and older sister Brooke (she's a BHS swimmer) all shoot and are class acts who make our city proud.