In a time and an economy where every school program is under
scrutiny, surprisingly one new program is flourishing. That program is the Minnesota State
High School Clay Target League (MSHSCTL).
The program got its start in 2001 at the Plymouth Gun
Club. A group of members were
discussing the future of the club. New housing developments were springing up around the 20-acre club and
the Shooting Range Protection Bill had not yet become law.
A hasty survey was conducted and it was determined the
average age of the Gun Club members was approximately 53 years old. It became apparent that unless
something was done to attract younger members, the club’s future could very well
be in jeopardy.
Jim Sable was named Youth Program Director and given the
responsibility of developing objectives, strategies and tactics for attracting
young people to the club. It was
quickly determined that the Plymouth Gun Club was not unique in the situation
of an aging membership.
The plan expanded into a two fold objective; develop a youth
program that would attract young people to the Plymouth Gun Club and also to
the Shooting Sports in general within three years. When the president of the Plymouth Gun Club asked Jim where
he was going to start, Jim responded, in the schools.
When asked, why start in the schools, Jim’s response was,
when Willy Sutton was asked why he robbed banks Willie replied, that’s where
the money is. We will start in the
schools because that’s where the kids are.
Jim contacted the Minnesota State High School League seeking
advice on how to get clay target shooting to become a varsity sport. Jim was advised to utilize his utmost patience
to take on such a task. He was also
told that lacrosse had been a club sport in schools for seven years before
becoming a league-sponsored activity.
With that in mind, the plan became one of getting clay target clubs
started in the schools.
The first year, Jim entered the mentoring program at Orono
schools, bringing six students to the club every week to shoot trap and
skeet. The word began to spread
among the students and soon Wayzata High School and Minnetonka had students
coming to the club to shoot.
That same year the National Shooting Sports Foundation
launched a program they called STP Scholastic Trapshooting Program. The Plymouth Gun Club got involved in
that program immediately. The
following year the STP evolved into the SCTP Scholastic Clay Target Program
which now added skeet shooting and sporting clays to trapshooting.
When Hopkins High School joined Wayzata and Minnetonka with
a trapshooting team, competitions were held at the Plymouth Gun Club. More schools began to inquire about how
they might get involved in the program.
The program was clearly growing in the high schools but one
thing became apparent early on. The
shooting sports needed to model themselves after other sports. In a conversation with a principal,
trapshooting was compared to the baseball program. The question was, if the
high school baseball team didn’t play T-Ball, Little League and Babe Ruth
baseball coming up, what would the program look like? Similarly, if students didn’t take up shooting until high
school, what would their skill level be like?
By now the number of students shooting had grown to the
point that the Plymouth Gun Club needed to spin off some students to keep the
program growing. Ron Hentges of
the Plymouth Gun Club visited with Dave Vice of Park Sportsmen’s Club and asked
if they could take Wayzata, Minnetonka and Hopkins at their Club. Dave Vice and Perry White agreed
wholeheartedly to help out.
Now the Wayzata Middle School Students, a Home School
Association and Robbinsdale Armstrong would shoot at Plymouth. The program was popular and growing in
the metro area but inquiries kept coming from schools outside of the metro area
asking how they might participate.
The virtual league idea came from Scott Oberloh of
Worthington and his friend Ken Sonnenfeld in St. Francis. They asked if there wasn’t a way kids
could shoot without having to drive long distances like other sports
teams. Jim turned, once again, to
the MSHSL and was told that schools had bowling programs that bowled in their
own communities and emailed scores to a central clearing house.
Scott Oberloh (Worthington), Ken Sonnenfeld (St. Francis),
Doug Dingman (Prior Lake) and Jim Sable (Plymouth) decided to meet one Saturday
in Lakeville and develop a format for a Virtual League. After the meeting, Jim took the
information back to the MSHSL hoping that the time was right for trapshooting
to become a Varsity Sport under the guidance and leadership of the MSHSL.
Given the economic conditions the timing was not right for
this to happen but the MSHSL suggested Jim Sable consider forming the “governing
body” of the school program until economic conditions improve. Thus was born the MSHSCTL.
Trophies were presented to schools in the Metro Conference
and Out-State Conference plus High Gun Male and High Gun Female in each region
at the end of the regular season and before the State Tournament.Once again necessity has proven to be the mother of
invention and the Minnesota State High School Clay Target League was born. On June 13, 2010 the Minneapolis Gun
Club hosted the 2010 High School Trapshooting Tournament where schools from out
state Minnesota will square off with Metro Area high school shooters. The Minnesota
State Trapshooting Association sponsored the event and provided all of the
targets and trophies for the event while Jim Walkowiak of the Minneapolis Gun
Club provided staff for the event and free lunch for the shooters.
With all of the news about school programs being cut, here
is a new program that is giving hundreds of girls and boys a new opportunity to
earn letters, scholarships and participate in a sport they can enjoy for a
lifetime. Now it’s your turn to join us.
Watch us grow...
2008 - 3 teams
2009 - 6 teams
2010 - 13 teams
2011 - 29 teams
