Woodland High School trap team athletes fire off shotguns at the Vancouver Trap Club last week.
Woodland High School trap team members Hunter Coss, left, and Austin Snow, right, peer into the trap house from where clay pigeons are shot for trapshooting rounds.
Nothing says “getting ready to go back to school” more than a couple rounds at the trapshooting range; at least that’s the case for several members of Woodland High School’s shooting team.
Team members, coaches and parents were at the Vancouver Trap Club Aug. 16 for a summer practice, shooting clay pigeons in a trapshooting setup. When school’s out, practices are less rigorous than during the school season, as the whole team wasn’t represented.
Come the start of the season proper, the team will be ready to take on another state title.
Founded in 2012, the Woodland High School trap team offers a different kind of team sport for those more inclined to shooting targets than shooting hoops. The team generally has about eight competitions a year, with two being hosted by the team — one at the Vancouver Trap Club and another in Salem, Oregon.
When school is back in session the team will ramp up its preparation, practicing four times a month on both sides of the Columbia River — twice at the Vancouver location and twice at a club in Rainier, Oregon.
The club came together in a push from Woodland Public Schools to offer more opportunities for students outside of more conventional sports programs. WPS Athletic Director Paul Huddleston and other school administrators were looking for different extracurricular avenues to take, with trapshooting and equestrian teams coming as a result.
When looking for someone to start the team, the district had their answer in local photographer Ben Musgrove. He stepped up to head the team in 2012, right when his own son, Jordan, was going into high school.
As to why he took up the leadership role, Musgrove looked back on his own youth. In high school he had sports, wrestling specifically, to give him a sense of identity. A group like a trapshooting team seemed like a perfect opportunity to offer something of that nature to Woodland students.
“If a teenager can hang their hat on something, there’s a reason to do good in school and it gives them a reason to get out of bed in the morning,” Musgrove said.
As the sport involves firearms, stressing safety has been a big push for Musgrove and Huddleston.
“Since firearms are involved, we had to develop strict protocols involving safety and conduct with guns never being permitted on school grounds, including the parking lots, in any manner,” Huddleston explained in a release. “Each student takes safety training with parents required to attend mandatory meetings — we rigorously scrutinize every element of the team’s practices regularly to ensure students and everyone involved are completely safe.”
Musgrove said that all six of the coaches have Level 1 Coach certification with the National Rifle Association.
“I’m a big proponent of education. I believe everybody should know how (firearms) operate, because just knowing how these operate would honest-to-goodness reduce a massive number of accidents,” Musgrove said.
A focus on safety has been a point of pride for Musgrove, as he will occasionally run into individuals who know of Woodland’s commitment to following safe procedures.
“I would rather shoot with these kids than any other bunch of adults,” Musgrove remarked.
Although Beaver-branded, the trap team doesn’t receive funding from the school district for its operations. Instead, the team has partnered with the MidwayUSA foundation, which helps to fund shooting teams and clubs through asset endowments as well as fundraisers using Midway USA-sold hunting and outdoor sporting goods.
Through the endowment structure the team is able to keep running, along with the support of the Vancouver and Rainier gun clubs. Musgrove said the Rainier club buys bulk shells for use by the team, as one of the complications for a club of minors is that they can’t buy shells for practice themselves.
Through working with Huddleston on some criteria, students the trap shoot team members can earn varsity letters for their participation, much like the more conventional teams and clubs, Musgrove said.
Students on this team aren’t pumping iron or doing running drills, but to say they aren’t putting in effort would be foolish. The ability to concentrate clearly, as well as handle nerves, were paramount skills to doing well at shooting.
“They know if they haven’t missed any, and what do you do when you’re getting toward 21, 22 targets, you’re getting a little bit excited,” Musgrove said.
Being able to keep it together, especially after the crush of missing the 24th of 25 shots in a row, is valuable.
“Any young man or young woman can benefit greatly from the ability to control their emotions, if you will, in a sense that they can remain calm and level-headed,” Musgrove said.
Calling back on his wrestling roots, Musgrove said there was a lot similar between that and trapshooting. Although each individual has their own score they combine for a team score, adding a dynamic where both types of competition matter.
“Of course, everyone is out for themselves, but they are also out for each other,” Musgrove said.
One of the team members, Woodland High School junior Austin Snow said, “I feel we are strong as individuals, but even stronger as a team.”
“Some kids that are not so skilled with football or basketball, they come out here and they fit right in because we’re a bunch of goofballs,” Snow said.
Though he acknowledged that shooting takes a good deal of concentration, Snow’s outlook on the individual nature of the sport gave it a more laid-back approach than sports where one athlete can let the whole team down.
“If you don’t do well, you don’t do well, but it’s mostly about having fun,” Snow said.
