(KNSI) – The Minnesota State High School Clay Target League’s fall season has opened with around 3,700 students taking part. President John Nelson says the autumn competitions are newer, started about ten years ago, and there are not any tournaments attached to them. The season provides a good introduction to the sport while keeping firearm skills sharp.
“We started the fall season 10 years ago at the request of some coaches that thought it would be a good idea to introduce the sport to the incoming freshmen to the high school, and it would help with the prerequisite to the hunting season to help sharpen those skills.”
Nelson says getting younger students involved pays dividends for the range as participants often bring in friends and relatives who become new members of the club.
“Where we’ve seen the success is about 80% of the shooting ranges that participate in our league have seen an increase in nonyouth participation at the shooting range. So that means the kids are bringing in parents, they’re bringing in friends, they’re bringing in others to get reengaged at the shooting range.”
Another group that takes advantage of the fall league is hunters. They use it to sharpen their skills with a firearm in time for deer season.
What started as a local effort at the Plymouth Gun Club to bring young people to the range turned into a statewide league in 2008. When Nelson first got involved, 30 student-athletes from three schools took part. Nelson says the numbers have exploded across Minnesota to the point where a clay target league has been founded in 34 states using our model as a baseline.
“We were contacted by Tommy Millner, the CEO of Cabela’s. And Tommy asked us what was going on in the state of Minnesota because we had so many youth participating in clay target shooting sports. So, what we proposed to Cabela’s then was to develop the USA High School Clay Target League.”
The USA league has 43,009 Participants in 1,466 teams. Roughly 25% of those are from Minnesota.
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