Trapshooters honor the memory of TJ Houdek

By John Burbridge sports@charlescitypress.com

NASHUA — Common advice is to be careful what you wish for.

You should also be careful of what you don’t wish for.

Usually, trapshooters wish for no wind during competitions. And that’s what they got — or didn’t get — during the third-annual TJ Houdek Memorial Tournament, Saturday at the Nashua Fish and Game Club.

A breeze would have been nice during a sweltering afternoon that offered little relief to those who even found shade. But a hot sun is not going to discourage ardent trapshooters like Jess Sprung from Aredale, who has participated in the annual shoot in all three years while crushing more than 1,000 birds during that span.

Sprung didn’t know Houdek personally, and only first became aware of the tournament from a social media post from a fellow trapshooter.

Nick Mead of Charles City did know Houdek as the two were members on the Charles City trapshooting team.

“I couldn’t make it last year, but to honor TJ I try to make it when I can,” said Mead, who said he shot fairly well at this year’s tournament, and even was able to go shot-for-shot with some of the more advanced shooters in a side competition from the 27-yards-to-the-traphouse line.

The first trapshooting tournament in Houdek’s honor was held in September of 2016, a little less than two months after he died when his motorcycle collided with a semi-truck within a notoriously dangerous and often confusing Hwy 218 intersection in Floyd.

One of the people who helped start the tournament was Houdek’s former high school coach, Tim Kueter, who credited Houdek as being a solid role model for younger shooters and remaining supportive to the high school program and the sport itself after he graduated.

In what has become a tournament tradition, there was a live auction during a break in the action. Some of the items auctioned off included engravings of Houdek’s artwork as a tattoo artist and artist in general.

Houdek was due to have some of his work featured at Charles City’s annual Art-a-Fest in Central Park before he died.

Proceeds beneficiaries from past and present tournaments include the TJ Houdek Scholarship Fund, the Iowa State student chapter of Ducks Unlimited — which Houdek was the president of, and the Charles City/Nashua-Plainfield high school trapshooting team.