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MARENGO — Andy Davidson looked up at the young man standing next to him and smiled. Perhaps there was a bit of a grimace in there, too, because his 18-year-old son, Lee, had just been asked about beating his father in a recent trapshooting event.

"He beat everyone (in their shooting group) yesterday with a 97 in handicap," Andy said.

The Davidsons are part of a contingent of thousands of in-and-out-of-state shooters converging on the Cardinal Center this week north of Columbus for the 122nd Ohio State Trapshooting Tournament. It wraps up today, June 22.

You can be sure — even though Lee might beat Andy more than just once in a while these days — that Andy is proud of his son, who recently graduated from Tippecanoe High School and is headed to Indiana University to study business.

Perhaps what Andy is thinking about when he sees his son shooting are the days when he was learning the sport of trapshooting from his father, also named Lee.

Family tradition

The late Lee Davidson learned to shoot from his father on their Indiana farm. As a young man, he applied that shooting knowledge to the sport of trapshooting.

"The first time he ever shot trap, he broke a 99 (out of 100)," Andy said.

The rest is history. He went on to become a professional shooter and factory representative for Winchester. The family lived in Tipp City, close to the Amateur Trapshooting Association and the Grand American Trapshooting Championships, which were held in Vandalia from 1924-2005. Lee Davidson, Andy's father and Lee's grandfather, was inducted into the Trapshooting Hall of Fame in 1999.

While Andy grew up close to trapshooting and has always been a top-notch shooter (he's a 27-yard handicap shooter) and has won numerous trophies, he was a basketball star in high school and went on to study optometry at Ohio State. He operates the successful Tipp Eye Center in Tipp City ... and still shoots as much as he can.

As a youngster, Andy worked at the ATA grounds and his son, Lee, also worked at the Grand in his younger days. All this time, of course, Andy has been teaching Lee how to shoot.

"The thing my father told me and I have stressed to Lee – I even told him this week – is to keep your head down on the stock. He always told me not to raise my head. It's like raising your head in golf. If you do, you are going to miss."

Young Lee said he always knew he would be a shooter like his father and grandfather.

"I used to go around Vandalia with a little shooting vest on and I wanted to be just like Dad," he said.

And he said that advice, which originally came from his grandfather, has made a difference.

"I was struggling at the start of the week and Dad was helping me try different things. Finally he just said, 'Make sure to keep your head down.' And as I've been shooting lately, all I can think about is keeping my head down ... and then I went out and broke that 97, so it must have worked," he added.

He said he would like to continue shooting, even though he will be going away to college.

"I'll probably have my summers open so I can shoot a lot then," he said. "It's something I plan to do for a long time and hope to improve as I go."

He's off to a good start ... now that he can beat his dad.

Pete's week

While, as usual, many shooters are winning events and trophies and having a good time at this year's shoot, nobody is having more fun this year than 74-year-old Peter J. Streuber of Dayton.

On Friday, Streuber was inducted into the Ohio State Trapshooting Hall of Fame.

To celebrate, the colorful Streuber has been wearing vintage shooting clothing from the time when he first saw trapshooting, in 1948 in Vandalia.

These days, you never see a shooter on the line wearing a jacket and tie ... except Streuber.

"It's nostalgia week," Streuber said. "I wanted people to see how shooters looked in the old days. And I'm having a lot of fun with it."

Streuber is known among his friends for his unusual and fresh outlook on life. He used to drive to shoots in a vehicle that once towed jet planes at Wright-Patterson Air Force base. And when the Grand American moved from Vandalia to Sparta, Ill., in 2006, Streuber attended, pitched a large Army surplus tent and tacked up a sign announcing it as the "Ohio Hotel." Then he proceeded to cook breakfast for anyone who happened to stop by.

"This is Pete's week," Andy Davidson said. "And we couldn't be happier for him."

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2409 or jmorris@DaytonDailyNews.com.