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Greenbrier County teen will be part of clay shooting world record attempt

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — You don’t find too many 16-year-old world record holders, but a Greenbrier County teen will soon vie to be one.

Makayla Scott of White Sulphur Springs is among four teens selected to attempt to break the world record for most clay targets broken in a 12 hour period.

“Currently the record is 4,652, but we’re wanting to go above and beyond with this.  We’re wanting to break 10,000 targets,” Makayla said.

Makayla has flourished in shooting ever since the first clay was broken

She’ll join Levi Hendrichs of Sibley, Iowa, Jessica Strasser of Waterford, Wisconsin, and Weston Zolck from Herman, Nebraska, in the effort. The four of them, all teenage shooters, will add a fifth shooter to their lineup — David Miller, the shotgun programs manager for CZ-USA.

The event will be in Lenexa, Kansas, on Oct. 12. The date is significant because the entire event is geared around promotion of CZ’s Model 10/12 shotgun.

So the event will happen on 10-12 outside of Kansas City where the company is headquartered.

It will also start at 10:12 a.m.

“They were just thinking it would be awesome to have a group of kids to break that record,” Makayla explained.

“So they had a trial of 50 targets, and afterward you had to write an essay on what shotgun sports means to you. So they combined my target score with my essay and I competed against kids all around the United States.”

The trial was made to order for Makayla, who is already an accomplished sporting clays shooter and an accomplished writer. She’s a regular contributor to “Women’s Outdoor News.”

However, Makayla’s story goes well beyond shotguns and clay birds.  Her story is one of survival.

“I was born into a family of drug addicts, and my mother died of a drug overdose when I was six,” she said. “Everything went downhill from there.”

At age 9, after she bounced around the foster care system, Makayla was adopted by Telford and Melissa Scott. Although the couple showered their new daughter with praise, love and support, Makayyla still suffered from a fear of failure.

Shotgun sports gave Makayla the confidence she needed to come out of her shell and thrive She wants to be that light for others who are in the same dark place she once knew well

“I had no confidence. I tried everything and thought I was a failure at life.  I tried softball, basketball, everything and I didn’t like any of it,” she said.

Her dad and brother decided to introduce her to shooting sports. Although they had been hunting before, Makayla admitted shooting a rifle wasn’t her strong suit.

Accuracy and a steady hand weren’t easy skills.  But something happened the first time she and her family stepped up to the line at a sporting clays range.

“Whenever that first clay broke, it was like magic.  I felt a confidence that I never had before,” she said.

Eaten up with the sport, Makayla trained for more than a year, shooting clay birds almost daily and working to hone her shotgun skills. Because she is home schooled, Makayla had opportunities and time to travel and begin competing across the country. The situation was perfect to succeed.

“It was amazing.  I love the competition and the friends I made. People in this sport are a lot different than other sports.  In other sports, there’s a lot of jealousy, even with the parents, but in this one everybody just wants to help each other,” she said.

The travel and competition only increased her passion and her skills.  She began to win those competitions and was noticed by CZ and other players in the industry.

Makayla’s success contributed to other accomplishments too. She is already enrolled in a number of pre-college courses at New River Community and Technical College in addition to her home school curriculum.

She hopes to earn a scholarship to shoot for a college team to pay for school. With four siblings, a scholarship is almost a must for her to attend college.  She also hoped to shine a light for others still living in the same environment from which she emerged.

“I needed that light as a kid. There are so many that people don’t see and there’s so much going on behind closed doors that people don’t know about.  But that little ray of hope can make all of the difference in the world to a kid.” she said.





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