Waupaca team adds middle school shooters
By Greg Seubert
If everything falls into place, the future looks bright for the Comet Clay Crushers.
That’s because Waupaca High School’s trapshooting team will prepare for the upcoming season this fall with middle school students for the first time.
“We’ve had as many as 15 high school students that have participated and this year, we were fortunate to get the middle school students involved,” said John Woodliff, who coaches the team with Al Domaszek.
“It’s going to be a new program for us,” he said. “We’re working out the particulars of how we’re going to handle it, but right now, the Waupaca School Board did approve a trap and skeet club for sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders. Our high school people gave us the encouragement that this could happen with some restrictions. We were under some pretty tight restrictions as to what we could and couldn’t do. Now, we can do it.”
COVID-19 kept Woodliff from fielding a team last year and this year’s squad placed 18th out of 20 teams in May at the Kettle Moraine High School Trapshooting Conference meet.
Woodliff expects that to change once the younger shooters get on board.
“We’ve been struggling to get high school kids involved, especially this last year with the pandemic,” he said. “It was a nightmare. It hit the fan and slowed us right down.”
Trapshooting fundamentals
Woodliff, the Waupaca Conservation League’s president, helped get the team off the ground six years ago.
“They get to learn trapshooting fundamentals,” he said. “They have to have hunter safety (certification). They become proficient at shooting clay targets and have the opportunity to earn a club sport letter, which several of our past students have done. I’m confident that there are going to be several more next spring that will earn their letter.”
Middle school and high school students had an opportunity on a recent Saturday afternoon at the WCL grounds to find out about the team.
One of them, Garrett Grundman, will be a seventh-grader at Waupaca Middle School and hopes joining the team will improve his aim as a hunter.
“We know the guy that runs this and he told my mom about it,” he said. “I said I wanted to try it.”
Also on hand was Rhett Nelson, who competed on the team as a Waupaca High School freshman.
“A lot of the high school kids that I’m shooting with, we’re all like-minded and like to shoot,” he said. “It’s fun to be around each other.”
Competition
The Clay Crushers competed this spring in the Kettle Marine High School Trapshooting Conference’s North Division with teams from North Fond du Lac, Oshkosh, Berlin, Oakfield, Wautoma, Winneconne, Laconia and Winnebago Lutheran Academy.
“They shoot 50 targets at the meet,” Woodliff said. “Everybody that is in the program is part of the team. What the schools do is either designate their five shooters before the match to be their team shooters or take the top scores. Our club takes the top five scores. That way, everybody has the opportunity. If you’re having a bad shooting day, don’t worry about it. Every score gets counted. You may be able to win an award for that shoot depending on how well you shot and how well somebody else shot.”
Nelson enjoys the meets, which are held during the spring.
“They’re a lot of fun and are actually difficult because you’re shooting at different ranges with different backgrounds,” he said. “It’s not as easy as you think. This is something you can do your whole life. You can always shoot trap.”
“We do the fall practice so that when spring comes, these students are ready to go,” Woodliff said. “Our spring practice will start in early March and our competitions will start two weeks later.”
The Clay Crushers host meets at the WCL grounds on Waupaca’s south side.
Team sport
“A lot of these students may not be football players, baseball players, track stars, whatever,” Woodliff said. “This gives them the opportunity to participate in a school activity, earn a letter and be part of the school without being involved in a lot of other sports.
“That’s what today is about,” he added. “We’re introducing this to younger kids and high school kids that are interested in coming out and seeing how this is done. Maybe this is a sport for them that will carry on. This is their opportunity to find out if this is what they might want to enjoy doing.”
Woodliff is convinced the middle school students will lead to more success down the road.
“I am confident that our numbers are going to go up with the add-on of the middle school,” he said. “This is going to help our program. We were the only school in our conference that did not have junior high or junior varsity. I was questioned on it every year. I said, ‘Because our school board hasn’t approved it yet.’ I have told our conference people that we’re on board with our junior high and they’re ecstatic. It’s going to help not only Waupaca, but the entire conference.”
Benefits of middle school shooters
Teams with middle school shooters have an advantage over teams like Waupaca, according to Woodliff.
“When you have 12- and 13-year-old kids that have shot for three years before coming to high school, they get in there and they know what they’re doing,” he said. “This is what we’re after: to get these kids involved so when they get into the high school program, it is much easier for them and us to keep them on board here.”
It’s not too late for students to join the team. Anyone interested can contact Woodliff at [email protected] or 715-256-9721.
“I was not anticipating so many of the younger kids showing up today,” Woodliff said. “The school board just approved this, so these kids are just finding out about this. We’re going to keep promoting it throughout out the summer. We’ll get them on the list so that when fall comes, we’ll make sure that they get contacted and get the necessary paperwork done so they’ll be good to go.”
In the meantime, Woodliff is excited about the team’s future.
“It’s great for the kids, it’s great for the sport, it’s great for the school district,” he said.