Jordan joins trap shooting league

Scoreboard MN

Todd Albein – 4/14/11

A new sport is beginning this spring at Jordan Hgh School.

Jordan is the latest school to start a trap shooting team, and competition begins this spring.

Earlier on, the participation has been overwhelming. The team consists of 35 students, including nine seniors and three girls.

"I'm ecstatic with that," head coach Jeff Will said. "I think we have the largest trap shooting team in the state, and we haven't even fired a cap yet."

Will is the driving force behind the team starting up and Jordan joining the Minnesota State High School Clay Target League in 2011.

"I had a few people hear that there was a trap shooting league," Will said. "So I did some research, and low and behold there was a league.

"I just started digging around and gathered information and one phone call lead to another and another. I put things together and took it to the school board, and they were very supportive."

The Jordan School Board gave Will the go-ahead to try to put a team together.

He begin putting up signup sheets and fielding phone calls from people asking about the team, and before he knew it, the Jordan trap shooting team was formed and ready to go this spring.

"The parental support, the district support and the local people have been overwhelming and really supportive," Will said.

So 35 Jordan students put down $220 to join the team.

"I'm overwhelmed with all the participants," Will said.

The team gathered outside for the first time last Thursday at the River Valley Trap Range near the intersection of Senator Road and Old Highway 169 Boulevard.

Prior to that, they had two class sessions, to teach the kids about gun safety, trap shooting, trap shooting etiquette, and all other aspects of shooting.

When they fired the first shot for the Jordan trap shooting team in practice it was a little bit of a slow start, but after a while, the shooters started taking down their targets.

"These kids are taking this serious and really want to do well," Will said.

Hidden talent

Inside the world of trap shooting, Jordan is known as one of the top shooting cities in the state if not the country.

" Jordan is an unknown hotbed for shooting sports," Will said.

In 2009, the city of Jordan had four of the five trap shooting All-Americans from the state of Minnesota. Only 30 are named All-Americans in the entire country.

"It really is unique and odd," Will said. "There's a lot of talent in this town."

With that background, Will said he expects this team to do very well this year.

"I have high expectations of these kids," he said. "I really, really hope that we do well at state this year."

Competing

In the MSHSCTL, the season is early a virtual season until the state tournament.

The first four weeks is just for practice, and after that, Jordan will compete in the Minnesota South Conference with teams from Belle Plaine, Prior Lake, Worthington, Tracy, Faribault, New Prague and New Richland-Heartland-Ellendale-Geneva.

But they won't travel to other gun clubs.

Jordan will meet at the River Valley Trap Range, and each member will shoot for five targets from five different stations in hopes of getting a perfect score of 25.

"The targets come out at the same height and same speed, but it's continually moving," Will said. "Every target is different."

When they are done, Will will post Jordan 's scores on the MSHSCTL website as will their opponents. That's how they will find out who won.

Jordan opens the season against Belle Plaine, which shoots out of Le Sueur.

In each match, the high shooter gets a point, as well as the high squad and the high team average. The team that gets the most points is declared the winning squad.

Team points are accumulated throughout the season, and the team with the highest number of points is the conference champion.

The MSHSCTL state tournament is June 11-12 at the Minneapolis Gun Club and split into three classes varsity, junior varsity and novice.