Year Born:
Year Died:
Year Inducted: 2023
Kathleen Connerley is being inducted into the Idaho Hall of fame because of impressive impact that has made on Idaho trapshooting as a tireless volunteer for the betterment of the sport in the State of Idaho and as a fundraising phenom.
Kathy began her ATA registered shooting career in 1978 and has logged registered targets every year since. Subsequently, her PITA career began in 1997. To date she has shot 91,000 ATA and 14,525 PITA registered targets. She is an annual member to both associations. Her home club is the Culdesac Gun Club but she regularly renews yearly memberships at clubs across Idaho including Lewiston, Caldwell, and Boise. Over the years, Kathy has participated at shoots in many states around the country with husband, Spud and other family members. Currently, Kathy shoots mostly singles on squads with family and friends.
Kathy’s true talent lies in her skills as an organizer and a fundraiser. She has coordinated, set up and advertised countless silent and live auctions, raffles, wine tastings, and dinners. She is famously the Queen of Raffle Ticket sales! Kathy may be small, but she is fierce. Just watch her in action for a few minutes at any shoot where she has her raffle tickets in hand and you will see many people just reach into their wallets with a smile to grab the twenties contained within because they hear her battle cry, “Hey, I need your twenty bucks!”
Since 2010 Kathy has used her talents to design, sew, and embroider the Idaho State Trapshooting Quilt that she then raffles off every year. She divides the proceeds and donates an equal share to the Idaho State Trapshooting Association and the ID PITA. To date she has donated more than $25,000 to the two associations. In addition, Kathy had loaned her considerable fund-raising skills to help individual gun clubs, both state associations, and various youth trapshooting groups across the state. One example of this is in the early 2000’s, the old Lewiston Gun Club needed to raise money for an imminent relocation. Kathy was instrumental in orchestrating at least two live auctions to benefit this cause. These auctions were held at the Camas Prairie Shoot under large outdoor tents and brought in a whopping $13,000 to $14,000 each! Of course, the ISTA and ID PITA silent auctions would not exist if it weren’t for Kathy. Her ability to glean about $3000 from others’ donated items is nothing short of amazing. She also helped develop the Steele/Connerley draw score for the ISTA state shoot, and she and Spud sponsored Traps 1 & 4 of the ID PITA handicap marathon perpetual purses.
Kathy has been elected to many trapshooting boards. She has been on the ID PITA board of directors for five years and held the office of Vice President from 2017 to 2020. She was also a director on the ISTA board from 2012 to 2014 but currently volunteers her time to that organization by heading up the trophy committee for the ISTA state shoot and has been doing so for the past five years. She is currently the Secretary/Treasurer of her home club, Culdesac Gun Club, and has been for many years. She currently is Secretary-Treasurer of the ISTA. She has been an active Idaho representative at the Grand Pacific, has served on
the PITA HOF board and is a regular attendee with her husband, Spud.
Kathy’s knowledge of Roberts Rules of Order makes her a huge advocate for the trapshooting community to allow the membership to have a voice in how they want their organizations to be run during annual membership meetings. For many years, Kathy has worked tirelessly to unite all Idaho trap shooters by being a voice of reason and understanding when conflict arises. She always supports orderly dialogue to voice differences of opinion and seeks consensus solutions. Kathy’s organizational and writing skills have been instrumental in changes made to both ISTA and ID PITA bylaws by sending in proposals to those organization for
membership vote.
Kathy’s talents spill over to cashiering, too. Since the late 90’s, she has done the cashiering for the Culdesac Gun Club annual
ATA shoot and worked as a volunteer “helper” to other cashiers at other gun clubs during their registered shoots. In the early days, all shooter information and scores were recorded on triplicate forms, by hand entry. Cashiering responsibilities were very time consuming and continued several days past the end of the shoot. Kathy was one of the first to purchase and become adept at computer assisted cashiering. In 2006 Kathy partnered with her friend Kathi McCulley and K & K Cashiering was born. In the 16 years they have worked together they have managed to have a little fun and still meet their original goals of providing accuracy for shooters and accountability to the host clubs that hired them. Their cashiering efforts have taken them from the Hawaii State PITA
shoot in Hilo to Nez Perce’s Father’s Day shoot. They have also been regular cashiers at Grangeville shoots. One time, they emergently stepped in to cashier the Camas Prairie Handicap for their friend Steve Eichenberger who was battling cancer at the time. Kathy continues to tirelessly volunteer her time and energy at any shoot she attends and is well known to all the Idaho clubs.
Kathy was born to Luana and Alvin Connerley and has four siblings: Byron (deceased), Dirk, Janene, and Chris. She is married to Spud Storey and they have two children; Connor, Ali (husband Brian Ferry) and two grandchildren, James and Eli. Her family comes before any score or average. Kathy requested to be placed permanently on the 25-yd line for handicap so she could always shoot with her dad. She could have shot much better scores and increased her average but if you know Kathy at all, you understand that the Average Book was not important– shooting on the same squad as her dad, Alvin, was.
This nomination would be lacking if Kathy’s shooting sense of humor wasn’t addressed. I have personally witnessed her shoot guns that have bad triggers, jury-rigged, and pieced together guns by her dad or Spud, and guns specifically made for her small stature. She
trusts and shoots any shells Spud puts in her pocket. Her goal always is to shoot better than a 2 on a post, break more than half and have fun. These two things alone have brought much laughter over the years. However, I will never forget the first time I met her. She may not remember but I was having a particularly bad shooting day and as I was walking off the shooting line, this little lady walked up to me confidently after I shot a one on a post and handed me a “Lou’s 1 Straight pin” and told me the story of how her mother was named Lou and that was her pin. Also, in doing research for this nomination, I found out that she has also been known to hand out “Fooled you got a 2!” pins as well. I am sure these pins have rendered many humiliating shooting wounds healed when given with Kathy’s smile and laugh.
Kathy leads by example by being an honorable sportsman, donating her time, her money and considerable efforts to the people who also enjoy the sport that she loves. She defends their rights and enables shooters to have a voice in the governance of the sport that they love. And, most importantly, she raises countless dollars to help keep this sport affordable for all who want to participate. Congratulations on your induction into the Idaho Trapshooting Hall of Fame.
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