High school clay target league is a hit
NEKOOSA – The Wisconsin Trapshooting Association’s home grounds sit on a rural flat east of Nekoosa.
The area features sandy soil, a few golf courses and thousands of acres of jack and red pines.
Pretty quiet, mostly.
But last weekend the Wisconsin High School Clay Target League brought its show to town and the WTA became the center of attention in this part of the Badger State.
Visitors swelled the vicinity (Nekoosa’s population is 2,580) to probably three times its normal size.
“Quite an impressive sight, isn’t it,” said Don Chrapla, a WTA volunteer from Fond du Lac, looking down the complex’s trap line last Sunday. “This is what this facility was made for.”
The WTA’s 30 trap fields, laid out side-by-side, were full. Several hundred spectators filled the space south of the shooting line.
One-hundred and fifty students, five at each field, shot rounds of 25 clay pigeons. They soon rotated out and 150 more moved in.
And so it went until each of the 1,655 students had attempted 100 targets.
The event was the 2022 Wisconsin High School Clay Target League State Championships. It drew competitors from 96 school teams across Wisconsin.
They came from Washburn along the shores of Lake Superior, Marinette on Green Bay, Prairie du Chien on the Mississippi River and dozens of communities in between.
Each had participated in the Wisconsin High School Clay Target League from March to May. The league had 2,928 students from 107 school teams across the state, according to organizers.
Now, over the course of two days, state champs would be crowned in 1A (smaller teams) on Saturday and 2A on Sunday. The trap fields were full from about 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. each day.
“We’re bustling,” said Matt Schneider of Muscoda, director of the Wisconsin High School Clay Target League, helping direct the shoot on Sunday from the WTA office.
Schneider was among eight clay target league volunteers and 15 WTA volunteers on hand to help things run smoothly.
Their motto was: “Every problem has a solution.” On Saturday that included replacing rain-soaked parts on some voice-activated electronic pigeon throwers.
But the event, like a play with many acts and revolving sets of actors, rolled on.
The Wisconsin league is part of the USA Clay Target League, a nonprofit organization based in Minnesota which offers school and college programs in 34 states.
Jim Sable, youth program director at the Plymouth Gun Club in Plymouth, Minnesota, started the league in 200708 with three teams and 30 participants.
His goal was attracting young people to the club and to the shooting sports. He decided to try getting school teams to participate. History shows it worked.
In 2020-21 the league had grown to 1,310 teams and 36,690 participants in 34 states. This spring participation is reportedly more than 40,000.
It provides extracurricular coed and adaptive activity for high schools and students in grades 6 through 12.
Although not official school programs, schools must approve the team and the team name. Most schools also offer students the ability to earn varsity letters through trapshooting.
The league states its priorities as “safety, fun, and marksmanship – in that order.”
Each student must complete firearm safety certification before participating in the league. The league has a spotless safety record, according to organizers, with no shooting-related injuries reported since its inception.
Schneider, the director of the Wisconsin league, said the shooting sports can offer many positive life lessons for students.
“The discipline and responsibility you learn by safely handling a firearm is huge,” said Schneider, who is an academic advisor and coach at Southwest Wisconsin Technical College in Fennimore. “And as you get better at trapshooting, the self-confidence builds and can transfer over to other facets in life.”
The league allows teams to shoot at their local ranges, enter scores and compete “virtually.” Each participant pays $35, which includes insurance. Many of the teams hold fundraisers which cover costs such as shells and range time.
The weather was sunny and warm Sunday offering good conditions for the 2A trapshooters.
The WTA facility took on a festive atmosphere.
Colorful tents were propped up and school flags were flying. A dozen vendors, including food trucks, set up shop. In addition to the competitors, hundreds of parents, grandparents, friends and siblings were on hand.
Schneider said the league estimates that for every one trapshooter, 2.5 more people attend the event.
Clear Lake High School was a case in point. The team brought 45 participants and about 150 supporters.
“Clear Lake travels well,” said head coach Mark Harshman.
Harshman, a retired manufacturing supervisor, helped start the school’s program seven years ago. They had a handful of coaches and 12 kids; it’s grown to between 40 and 50 each year.
Harshman said trapshooting is attractive in part because anybody can do it regardless of gender, size and physical ability.
“We have more kids on the trapshooting team than on the football team,” Harshman said. “And for many of our kids, it’s the only school-related activity they do. It’s been very positive for our community.”
The championships continued smoothly through the afternoon on Sunday. Scorers recorded the result of each shot. Spectators applauded at the end of each round.
And though not every clay pigeon was hit, coaches greeted the participants with high fives, fist bumps and words of encouragement.
Individual and team trophies and medals were awarded in novice, junior varsity and varsity divisions.
Brody Lee of Mineral Point Unified High School took top honors at the state championships with a perfect score of 100.
Danica Nowak of Denmark High School, Chase Bindl of River Valley High School and Gavin Wright of Waterloo High School each recorded 99s. Nowak was the high gun in the junior varsity division, while Bindl was second in 2A varsity and Wright was first in 1A varsity.
West Salem High School had the highest team score of 485, followed by River Valley High School (484) and Ashland-Washburn High School (481).
The season isn’t over for many of the trapshooters. The USA Clay Target League National Championships will be held July 6 to 10 in Mason, Michigan. More than 200 Wisconsin students are registered for the nationals.
Schneider said he expects the Wisconsin clay target league and state shoot to continue to grow.
“We get more interest from more teams each year,” Schneider said. “Everything seems like it’s rolling in the right direction.”