The mission of the league is to provide shooting sports as an extracurricular co-ed activity to high schools for students in grades six through twelve who have earned their firearms safety certification. Shooting sports is one of the safest sports available to student athletes. Students who participate can also participate in other sports at the same time. The league allows teams to shoot any day of the week, which gives flexibility for practices and games in other sports.
Enderlin-Sheldon Wildlife Club volunteers built a clay target field at the shooting range in 2015 and have continued to make improvements throughout the years. All practices and shoots will take place at the Enderlin-Sheldon Wildlife Club's shooting range located north of Enderlin. Scores are tabulated and put on the league's website. The students do not have to travel to other ranges. The state tournament takes place in June at the Shooting Park in Horace, all athletes are welcome to participate. The spring session is a nine week season and starts early April and finishes early June. The spring session consists of two practice weeks, one reserve week, five competition weeks and a fun week. The cost per student is $30. The money goes towards the administration costs associated with league operations. The league also offers a fall session which is shorter in length and does not have a state tournament.
The wildlife club along with private donors purchase shooting vests, shotgun shells and clays for each season. There are also businesses that give discounts on their products that are used for the league. These discounts are used to purchase ammunition, apparel and shotguns. Also, hearing and eye protection are provided by the wildlife club. The wildlife club even provides shotguns to those who do not have.
What is trapshooting? The shooters fire from five positions in an arc shaped formation 16 yards behind a throwing machine in a small enclosure called the trap house. The machine throws the clay disc targets at different angles unknown to the shooter. Shotguns are not loaded and no shell is in the chamber until a squad member's turn to shoot. Each person fires at a clay target. Each target is only fired at only once. After each shooter has fired five shots from a particular position on the arc, all shooters move one station to the right until everyone has fired from all five positions. There are a total of 25 shots per round. Spectators are welcome at all events. Hearing protection will be provided if you do not bring your own.
The League is fully Title IX compliant with both male and female athletes competing on the same team. Additionally, it’s an ‘adaptive’ sport, which allows students with physical disabilities to take part.
The 501(c3) non-profit USA Clay Target League is the largest youth clay target shooting sport program in the nation. The league offers trap, skeet, sporting clays, and 5-stand leagues to secondary and postsecondary schools across the country.
Despite the unprecedented challenges posed by the pandemic, ammunition shortages and supply chain disruptions, the league posted another record year in 2021. Here are some stats.
- · League programs expanded to 34 states
- · Record 39,255 registered student athletes
- · More than 13,000 new athletes in 2021
- · 7, 800+ coaches & volunteers
- · 60% of league athletes never participated in shooting prior to joining league
- · $4 Million+ conservation dollars raised by League athletes through Pittman-Robertson excise taxes
The League is the safest sport in school, with not one
reported injury since the inception of the League in 2001. Each athlete must
complete firearm safety certification before participation.
The League’s priorities are safety, fun, and marksmanship – in that order.
The coaches and assistants are all volunteers. They are Head Coach Don Dick, Assistant Coaches Marty Briss, Janna Anderson, Logan Welle, Kathleen Gilbertson, Tyler Marschke, Craig Skramstad, Crystal Worrell, Jeremy Worrell and Clint Lindemann.
For more information go to this link: http://ndclaytarget.com
Thanks for reading, Clint.
