APPLE VALLEY, Minn. - Nearly 4,000 high school athletes are expected to take part in the Minnesota State High School Clay Target League's Championship this weekend in Alexandria.
Trapshooting is the state's fastest growing high school sport with more than 6,000 athletes representing 380 schools, according to John Nelson the Vice President of the Minnesota State High School Clay Target League.
"About 50 percent of our kids have never touched a gun before they joined the league," said Nelson. "Now these kids have a passion for shooting sports or for hunting."
According to the league, trapshooting is one of the three major sports of competitive clay target shooting sports with a shotgun. In trapshooting targets are launched from a single machine.
"It's like hitting a golf ball into a five-gallon bucket at 100 yards," exclaimed John Miller, the head coach of Apple Valley's Trap Shooting Club. "This is a once in a lifetime opportunity for all of these kids."
"They all get to compete equally on the same playing field and everybody's score counts," Miller said. "And that's something that's extremely endearing to the league, to the kids and basically it's the draw."
Ryan Hill, a senior at Apple Valley High School, has been trapshooting for three years and admits the sport is tough. "It's a challenge," Hill said. "You can prove yourself every time you go out there and shoot."
Every athlete must have a firearms safety certificate. The league stresses "safe and responsible handling and storage of firearms and ammunition" as its first priority.
Danielle Ravnikar joined the Apple Valley team after performing on a dance team. "It's different and I stuck with it," Ravnikar said.
