Clay target shooting new high school sport in Northfield

[mrp]

http://www.southernminn.com/northfield_ ... d6b34.html

It’s the safest high school sport in Minnesota, with not one injury recorded since its inception in 2001. It’s also the fastest-growing sport, with its 341 percent increase in participation since 2010 making the often-cited growth of lacrosse seem like molasses. And it’s coming to Northfield.

So, we've got that going for us, which is nice.

[shooter115]

My hometown of Morris has a team staring this year too

[Thunder71]

That's awesome!
Dodge Center is working on it as well.

[Northfield 556]

I knew I moved here for a reason!

[DonT]

White Bear Lake has one as well (and has for some time) and they do very well I might add. They open the school for walking after school in the winter and I was really pleased to see a dispay for the team just inside the door as well as flyers on the wall alerting students they can join. Add to that the kids shooing Archery in the Lunchroom when we get there and that just leaves small bore matches in the Gym and we would have a Well Rounded School District......

DonT

[mrp]

Next year it'll be a varsity sport.

http://www.southernminn.com/northfield_ ... d5db6.html

Board member Rob Hardy, who fully supported the team, visited a practice at Ahlman's Gun Shop in Morristown, where the team practices, last weekend.

"I was impressed with the community and inclusiveness (of the team,)" he said.

When the issue of gun safety arose, Hardy pointed out that guns might be the number two cause of death in young people, but cars are the number one cause. The district provides driver education though, so they should also be able to support something that is providing gun safety and education.

"We're in a rural area, young people use guns for sporting," he said.

[shooter115]

Excellent!! Thanks for sharing. I sent the article to the folks that run our high school trap team. Maybe we can make the same happen here.

[hornswaggle]

My son is involved in the HS trap league this year and absolutely loves it. I was talking to one of the teams organizers about what a great way to get young people involved in the shooting sports and expose non-hunters to firearms. I see this as a huge win for the kids and a huge win for the shooting community. Plus he's less likely to get a concussion on the football field or teeth knocked out on the ice arena!

[shooter115]

Morris started their program in 2013 with like 26 kids. In 2014 as an official high school sport we had 59 participants. The high school trap team is the bigger than the football, baseball or basketball team.

What's cool about this as a high school sport is it gives smaller or less athletic kids the chance to be competitive. Something that doesn't happen with the traditional ball sports.

[IDPA Shooter]

We have almost a 100 high school shooters from Monticello and Big Lake at the club this year. Becker shoots at another club on town and St Michael/Albertville's team is in its 3rd year. They are varsity sports in all 4 schools

[shooter115]

Love seeing these stories in the press. What's really awesome is now that the high school season is over, several of the kids have formed their own teams to compete in our regular trap league. I shot my first league rounds of the year last Tuesday and in my 8 years of being involved with the club here, I have never seen so many young shooters on the fields outside specific youth events. It was energizing and can only hope it continues to grow in popularity with our next generation.

After sending 19 shooters to Alexandria from Championships on June 6-10, the Morris Area / Chokio-Alberta trapshooting team took home some hardware, winning the Novice division championship.

http://www.morrissuntribune.com/content/mac-trapshooting-wins-novice-championship

[mrp]

Northfield went to state.