Trap shooters shatter clay… and the competition

“Pull!” A brightly colored orange disk shoots into the air and bursts in half, accompanied by a bang. It falls to the ground, indistinguishable from the thousands of other clay fragments covering the field. “Nice one.”

Two dozen students have gathered at the Minneapolis Gun Club in Prior Lake for the first of two trap shooting practices. Surprisingly, this is only the third year St. Paul Academy and Summit School has had a trap shooting team–but the team has gained a lot of interest from new and veteran shooters alike, tripling in size since its inception. The very first year of the team’s formation, they were conference champions, and scored in the top five in their conference the next year.

While individual scores matter for personal standing, all members compete as a team. But rather than marksmanship, the team’s main goals are safety and fun. While shooters don’t need to own a gun, they do need to have Firearms Safety Certification for Youth from the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, which consists of classroom or online education and field training. “There’s a right way and a wrong way to handle firearms, and we’re teaching them the right way,” parent and team coordinator Amy Rients said. But shooters are still motivated to do well. “When you first start off, you don’t care when you miss,” freshman shooter Charlie Ward said. But the more you succeed, the more you want to succeed. “You’re more invested in it, so you have higher expectations,” he continued.

Though the team is strong in numbers and dedication, trap shooting is still considered a club rather than a sport. Because of this, students can’t earn varsity letters. The team can only meet on weekends because of scheduling matters with the gun club, which lets them practice for free. Some students participate in other sports as well, which doesn’t help. For trap shooting to become a sport, it must require so much time that members can’t do other sports, as well as ensured participation over time. “We have a limited bandwidth of sports we can support, and we are at that limit right now,” Director of Athletics Peter Sawkins said. Changing the status of the team hasn’t been a priority for school administration. “They like to see clubs be around for a while, make sure they’re established and not fizzle out; that enough kids are interested,” Rients said.

Most shooters would like to see the club become an official sport at SPA, particularly as that gives them the ability to get varsity letters. “At most high schools it it,” junior and varsity shooter Lowell Naas, who has been on the team since its beginning, said. As a sport, the team would gain financial support from the school and assistance in hiring coaches and organizing transportation. “For some people it could be an activity, but when you do it on a regular basis, it becomes a sport. It takes a lot of work and dedication,” freshman Quinn Smith said. Trap shooting requires several valuable skills, including focus and enduring strength. “Mental concentration. That’s the most important one,” Naas added.

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