Fifteen-year old trapshooter Robert James “RJ” Gropp of Berlin won the Champion of Champions Championship at the Grand American World Trapshooting Championships, held Aug. 4-14 at the World Shooting and Recreational Complex (WSRC) in Sparta, IL.
The Champion of Champions event is only open to the most recent (2021) State Singles Championship winners and Canadian Provincial Single Championship winners. It started back in 1923 and was for men only, then around 1976 women were allowed to compete in the Champion of Champions event. In 1984 other categories were added: Sub-Junior, Junior, Junior Gold, Lady l, Lady 2, Sub-Veteran, Veteran and Senior Veteran.
RJ got his chance to participate in the Champion of Champions event by winning the 2021 Wisconsin State Shoot Sub-Junior Singles with a score of 195 of 200 targets.
The Wisconsin State Shoot took place July 13-18 at the Wisconsin Trapshooting Association (WTA) Shooting and Learning Center in Rome, WI.
At this year’s Champion of Champions event RJ and two other Sub-Junior Shooters each had perfect 100 out of 100 scores.
Then in the shoot off, RJ shot another perfect 100, while David Brown of New Jersey had a 99, and Edward Schroeder of Iowa had a 93.
It was RJ’s second time winning the sub-junior Champion of Champions Championship and is the only the second person in the country to win the C of C twice (2020 and 2021). The other two time champion was Danny White of California (1986 and 1987).
After winning the COFC, Gropp went on to win the Sub-Junior NRA Singles with a 200 target event, making a score of 199 of 200, RJ had to defeat two other 199 shooters in a shoot off to win.
Then RJ went on to win the sub-junior ATA World Doubles Championship with a score of 99 of 100 targets. RJ won the Doubles Championship by defeating Jack Holland of Kentucky who also had a 99. The two had a shoot off for the championship.
In the Winchester Class AA Singles Championship, RJ took third place with a score of 199 after defeating four other “199” shooters in a shoot off.
In the ATA World HAA Champion event, High All Around (HAA) uses scores form singles, doubles, and handicap to determine winners in the sub-junior category. RJ came in third with a composite score of 386 of 400 while first and second place sub-juniors had a score of 387.
The Grand American World Trapshooting Cham-
pionships are very competitive, it had trapshooters from thirty US states, four Canadian provinces, and one New Zealander.
There were 2,999 classified trapshooters participating in the ten day competition and over 27,000 entries in the 24 events, averaging over 1,100 shooters per event.
AJ is a sophomore at Berlin High School and shoots in the Kettle Moraine Trapshooting Conference C Northern Division, the CWYTL, SCTP, and Berlingo Target Terminator, a youth group sponsored by the Berlin Concertation Club and others.
RJ lives with his parents Jeff and Kim Gropp in rural Berlin.
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RJ Gropp of Berlin has won the Champion of Champions Championship at the Grand American World Trapshooting Championships held in Sparta, IL.