Beech Tree News Network

We all know kids that we consider to be an “All-American” boy or girl. Whether it’s because of their personality, or educational prowess, or even just because they have the right look. However there is one young man in Butler County that’s had his All-American status made official.

Mason Johnson, son of Terry and Karrie Johnson of Jetson, has been named a 2022 trap-shooting All-American by the Amateur Trapshooting Association (ATA). Mason is one of just twenty=five shooters named to the team in the sub-junior division for shooters from 12-14 years of age. Mason has since aged out of that class and is now competing as a junior division shooter.

To make the All-American Team shooters have to be one of the top 25 points earners in the category across the nation. This is based on earning points in the top three places at shoots across the United States. Shooters can compete at as many events as they want, but only the top seven shoots are calculated for the All-American Team.

Although Mason grew up around trap-shooting, he wasn’t immediately interested in the sport. His grandfather, Terry Johnson, Sr., taught Mason to trap shoot, and he enjoyed shooting with his father and grandfather, he wasn’t interested in competition. Instead, he tried his hand at basketball in fifth-grade, and did some hunting, before taking up 50cc dirt bike racing. It was around that time that his mom heard about youth trap-shooting and mentioned it to Mason. The young man decided to give it a try, and in no time he had a new passion.

“I was kinda glad when he got out of bike racing,” said his dad Terry, “those bikes can get expensive, and he was about to need a bigger bike. Then he came to me and asked for a new shotgun, and I found out how much they cost.”

Mason was soon shooting in ATA, Academics Integrity Marksmanship (AIMS), 4-H, and FFA meets, and has traveled as far as Wisconsin to attend national events and gather all important ATA national points. Locally Mason shoots for the Kentucky Smokin’ Clays, which is made up of several young local shooters, and is coached by Linda Cox and TC Crossland, along with the ATA, 4-H, and FFA teams coached by Mason’s father, Terry, and John Ross Webster.

Besides the cost of a competition shotgun—Mason shoots a 12-guage Ceaser Guerini—ammunition and clay-pidgins can be quite an expense for someone that shoots more than twenty-thousand targets per year. Luckily, Federal Ammunition offers discounted shotgun shells for youth shooters, and there are programs to keep the cost of targets low.

Shooting keeps Mason busy. Shooting is basically a year-round sport, with Mason’s four shooting organizations shooting at different times of the year. Currently he is shooting in FFA competition with high school meets coming up in the spring. AIMS and ATA will compete throughout the late spring and summer.

Mason hopes to continue to shoot throughout high school, and has hopes of earning a college scholarship. Eleven colleges and universities now offer trap shooting at the NCAA level. A total of 53 post-secondary schools nationwide offer trap shooting with some level of official sanctioning.

For now, Mason will continue to shoot and practice, and he’s taken up coaching. Mason’s 11-year-old sister, Emma, asked him to help start shooting a few months back.

“She hadn’t shown a bit of interest in it, and then all at once, she wanted to give it a try,” said Terry. “She’s really liking it, so I guess we’ve got another trap shooter in the family.”