USA High School Clay Target League
The USA Clay Target League of Eagan, Minnesota, organizes and runs high school and college clay target shooting programs along with state tournaments and a yearly National Championship
It is a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation and the independent provider of shooting sports as an extracurricular co-ed activity to high schools and colleges for students who have their firearms safety certification.
The organization oversees school-based youth trapshooting, skeet shooting, sporting clays and 5-stand leagues in 42 states.
The USA Clay Target League is the largest youth clay target shooting program in the world, with over 50,000 participants yearly.{{cite web |title=USA Clay Target League Releases 2023 Impact Report |url=https://usaclaytarget.com/usa-clay-target-league-releases-2023-impact-report/ |access-date=27 February 2024}} The organization's high school program - USA High School Clay Target League - runs high-school trapshooting leagues in states nationwide, the largest of which is Minnesota, where 12,000 students from nearly 450 schools compete. All teams in USACTL leagues are school-sanctioned as a prerequisite for team/league formation. The Minnesota State High School Clay Target League Championship is the largest trapshooting event in the world with over 8,000 student athletes participating in 2018.{{cite web |last1=Anderson |first1=Dennis |title=High school trap shooting is going over with a bang — and needs more help |url=http://www.startribune.com/high-school-trap-shooting-is-going-over-with-a-bang-and-needs-more-help/485749961/ |website=Star Tribune |accessdate=1 October 2018}}
In 2019, the USA Clay Target League launched the USA College Clay Target League, a program for 2-year and 4-year postsecondary institutions.{{cite web |title=Home |url=http://college.usaclaytarget.com/ |website=USA College Clay Target League}}
In 2021, the USA Clay Target League formed the USA Homeschool Clay Target League, a program specifically for homeschool students that were unable to participate in the League's high-school programs due to school or state restrictions.{{cite web |title=USA Homeschool Clay Target League |url=https://homeschool.claytarget.com/ |website=USA Homeschool Clay Target League}}
The League's motto is "Safety, Fun, Marksmanship - In that order."
League format
Five students is the minimum number for a team. There is no maximum number of students that can be on a team. There may be some limitations to team size because of coaching resources and/or gun club capacity. Teams are made up of students from 6th grade through 12th grade. Middle school students are eligible to participate with high school kids if the team size allows for it
Each team competes in their own conference with teams of similar team member size. A true team scoring system (similar to track and swimming) is used and a team competes against all teams within their conference each week. The highest total of points achieved by the team at the end of the competition is the winner.
Growth
While the first years of the league were limited to just a handful of teams in Minnesota. It is now one of the largest sports in Minnesota High Schools.{{cite web|title=MSHSL Programs and Participants|url=http://www.mshsl.org/mshsl/news/Participation.pdf?ne=11|website=Minnesota State High School League|publisher=Minnesota State High School League}}
| class="wikitable" | ||
| colspan="4"|Growth of the USA High School Clay Target League | ||
|---|---|---|
| Year | # of Teams | # of Yearly Participants |
| 2001–2008 | 3 | 30 |
| 2009 | 6 | 60 |
| 2010 | 13 | 340 |
| 2011 | 29 | 707 |
| 2012 | 57 | 1,715 |
| 2013 | 115 | 4,200 |
| 2014 | 185 | 6,100 |
| 2015 | 268 | 10,600 |
| 2016 | 446 | 16,000 |
| 2017 | 615 | 22,000 |
| 2018 | 804 | 26,426 |
| 2019 | 1,042 | 32,810 |
| 2020 | 414 | 13,421 |
| 2021 | 1,311 | 38,255 |
| 2022 | 1,503 | 44,900 |
| 2023 | 1,647 | 49,337 |
Official recognition
On December 7, 2012, the Minnesota State High School League approved a sanctioned, presenting partner, trapshooting State Tournament. The first tournament was held at the Minneapolis Gun Club in Prior Lake on June 14, 2014. This meant that trap shooting had been recognized the same as all other high school sports, and Minnesota became the first and only state high school athletic association to host a trapshooting tournament. The League operates and abides by similar rules as the Minnesota State High School League.
Media attention
Little media attention was given to the league's efforts until the Minneapolis StarTribune wrote a piece{{cite news|last1=Wascoe Jr|first1=Dan|title=Aiming for the Future|url=http://mnclaytarget.com/files/2013/02/StarTribune-1-9-03.pdf|accessdate=31 July 2015|publisher=StarTribune|date=January 9, 2003}} about the efforts to get shooting sports into Minnesota schools.
In 2015 Bloomberg wrote about the league's expansion, noting that nearly 10,000 high school students were now taking part.{{cite web|last1=Deprez|first1=Esmé E|title=U.S. High Schools Embrace Shooting as a Hot New Sport|url=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-07-09/making-guns-cool-high-schools-embrace-shooting-as-hot-new-sport|website=Bloomberg|publisher=Bloomberg|accessdate=31 July 2015}}
In 2019, the USA Clay Target League was featured in Time Magazine{{cite web |last1=Gregory |first1=Sean |title=High School Shooting Teams Are Getting Wildly Popular — And the NRA Is Helping |url=https://time.com/longform/high-school-shooting-teams/ |website=Time |access-date=18 February 2022 |language=en}}
The League's Illinois program was covered in the Chicago Tribune in 2021{{cite web |last1=Keilman |first1=John |title=Rising popularity of trap shooting heralds the return of high school firearm sports |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/breaking/ct-high-school-clay-target-shooting-20210514-672baattazgpfelaw7qvj7nvqm-story.html |website=chicagotribune.com |access-date=18 February 2022}}
See also
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [http://www.mshsl.org/mshsl/claytarget.asp Minnesota State High School League - Clay Target] - Minnesota State High School League (MSHSL) website for Clay Target shooting.
- [http://usaclaytarget.com USA High School Clay Target League] - Homepage of the USA High School Clay Target League
- [http://mnclaytarget.com Minnesota State High School Clay Target League] - Homepage of the Minnesota State High School Clay Target League