{"id":481,"date":"2024-03-17T13:21:10","date_gmt":"2024-03-17T17:21:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wvata.com\/?p=481"},"modified":"2024-03-17T13:21:10","modified_gmt":"2024-03-17T17:21:10","slug":"nice-article-found-online-of-an-interview-of-tom-urquhart-reprinted-here-morgantown-resident-tom-urquhart-inducted-into-west-virginia-american-trapshooters-association-hall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.wvata.com\/?p=481","title":{"rendered":"Nice article found online of an interview of Tom Urquhart reprinted here.                            Morgantown Resident Tom Urquhart inducted into West Virginia American Trapshooters Association Hall of Fame"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.dominionpost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/tom-1-copy-810x480.jpg\" alt=\"\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>MORGANTOWN \u2014 Tom Urquhart still has not retired.At age 82, the Morgantown resident still works three days a week as a consultant for the Thrasher Group as an engineer.\u201cIf you never retire, you have always something to do,\u201d Urquhart, the former director of the Morgantown Water Commission, said.It is that never-quit attitude that has helped Urquhart be successful  in his endeavors outside of work as well. In June, he was inducted into  the West Virginia American Trapshooters Association (WVATA) Hall of  Fame.That is quite the honor for someone who did not pick up the sport until 1989 at the age of 48.\u201cI grew up hunting in southern West Virginia,\u201d Urquhart said.  \u201cFriends of mine had little hand throwers and we would shoot those  targets. Later in life, we went to the Greenbrier, and they had regular  professional traps there. I eventually rode up to Uniontown (Pa.) one  day and started talking to a local club and just started shooting  regular traps. That got me into this sport.\u201dNow, Urquhart admits that his hunting days are limited as he has all  but given up deer hunting. But trapshooting \u2014 he said \u2014 is a whole lot  like golf. Many shooters continue their trapshooting days well into  their 90s.\u201cIt\u2019s something to do,\u201d Urquhart said. \u201cI drive up every Sunday to Uniontown and maybe shoot 25-50 birds,\u201d Urquhart said.With his 12-gauge Perazzi shotgun in tow, Urquhart makes the trip not  just to Uniontown but to competitions all over the state and country.  And despite what he says, there has been plenty of success along the  way.Urquhart has registered over 224,000 targets and he\u2019s one of only 19  shooters in the WVATA 100k target club. The list of wins for the veteran  shooter are long but do include three-straight West Virginia Senior  singles titles from 2015 through 2017. He was the West Virginia Senior  Vet Handicap Champion in 2014 and 2017.He has also had success out of state as he won the Virginia Open  Senior Vet Handicap Trophy in 2015 and 2017, along with finishing  runner-up in Pennsylvania\u2019s Non-Resident Senior Vet Championship  Handicap event in 2014, 2017 and 2018.While the victories and successful shoots are becoming less frequent  for Urquhart, WVATA president Russell Lillard said events would not be  the same if Urquhart quit attending.\u201cIt was kind of a no-brainer for me to get Tom in the Hall of Fame,\u201d  Lillard said. \u201cEveryone knows Tom. It was a unanimous decision on the  (13-member) state board.\u201dLillard said that while Urquhart has certainly piled up the accolades  over the years, the Hall of Fame honor was even more about the person  than the marksman.\u201cThe best way to describe Tom is he is a true gentleman of the  sport,\u201d Lillard said. \u201cHe doesn\u2019t complain and always has a smile on his  face. He\u2019s a good representative of our sport and a good person \u2014  that\u2019s the key for me.\u201dThe trapshooting season is over for now as far as competitions, but  Urquhart said he will continue to travel to Uniontown for his league  competitions and to stay sharp.\u201cIt\u2019s constant practice,\u201d Urquhart said. \u201cAs long as I can be fairly competitive, I plan to keep doing it.\u201dBy ERIC HERTER <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>MORGANTOWN \u2014 Tom Urquhart still has not retired.At age 82, the Morgantown resident still works three days a week as a consultant for the Thrasher&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.wvata.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.wvata.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.wvata.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.wvata.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.wvata.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=481"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.wvata.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":482,"href":"http:\/\/www.wvata.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481\/revisions\/482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.wvata.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.wvata.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.wvata.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}