Students reaching for the skyTrapshooting team unbeatenby Paul Smith, Outdoors Editor, JSOnlinePosted: July 25, 2009
Burlington — Rain can make some birds take shelter. Puts a halt to some sports, too.
But clay pigeons fly just fine in a downpour - at least until they meet a well-placed cone of #8 shot.
Just ask the members of the Burlington High School Demons trapshooting team.
Two dozen turned out Tuesday evening at Burlington Conservation Club for a practice session. As pregnant skies unloaded on the brown grass and green corn rows on the rural edge of town, the shooters continued with an aplomb that would have made a duck proud.
"Pull," was the only refrain heard from the teenagers.
Josh Criscimagna, 15, a member of the junior varsity, shot a perfect 25 in a driving rain. So said the soggy score card on assistant coach Chet Tuinstra's clipboard. The team uses pencil - not so it can be erased, so it doesn't run in the rain.
"It's good practice," said head coach Tom Wondrash, gathering the shooters at the end of the session. "It helps them prepare for whatever conditions they might encounter in competition."
The team has conducted itself with a postal carrier's mantra this season. Starting in March, it has practiced in snow, wind, rain and dark (flickering lights).
The results have been impressive. The Demons ran the table this year, winning titles in each of the seven tournaments in which they competed, including three statewide shoots.
Tuesday's practice was a final tune-up for the next challenge - the 2009 Scholastic Clay Target Program National Championships in Sparta, Ill.
Held at the World Shooting and Recreational Complex, the event is the culmination of the school season for teams from across the nation. It has taken place this weekend, concluding Sunday..
More than 1,500 shooters were expected to participate, including 40 from Wisconsin.
Burlington High School alone qualified 30 shooters for the competition; all of them, including nine coaches and dozens of parents and other supporters, left Thursday for the trip to downstate Illinois.
More than 19 million Americans participate in shooting sports, according to the National Shooting Sports Foundation.
The popularity is lost on many in mainstream America.
Trap and skeet are Olympic sports. Football is not.
"The thing that I really like about shooting is the discipline and maturity it teaches," said Wondrash, 44, certified as a shooting instructor by the Amateur Trapshooting Association and the National Rifle Association. "And you don't necessarily have to be tall or fast. It allows kids to excel in something other than the typical sports."
You also don't have to be male. Seven of the Burlington shooters are female.
The scholastic program began in 2000 with a handful of schools competing in trap, skeet and sporting clays. It has grown to more than 8,000 students in 41 states.
Governed by the non-profit Scholastic Shooting Sports Foundation, the program "stresses safety and fun" while helping students "develop proficiency in a sport that can be shared and enjoyed with family and friends for a lifetime."
The program includes many age groups and levels of competition, including senior (grades 9 to 12) and junior (grades 6 to
, experienced and novice.
"The support of the coaches and older kids is tremendous," said Krista Hintz, whose son, Jordan, is an incoming freshman who recently won the individual Wisconsin title with a 196 out of 200.
The nationals is a team-format event conducted over two days. Each team - or squad - has five members. Each member shoots 100 targets a day.
Wondrash, a self-employed businessman, heard of the program and thought it would be a good fit for Burlington High School.
While most discussions of "school" and "shooting" are in the context of tragedy, Wondrash had come to know the enduring values of trapshooting and in March 2006 he approached Burlington school officials about adding a team.
"I fully expected to be turned down," said Wondrash. "But I came away with their support."
That started a flurry of activity - signing up coaches, getting the agreement from Burlington Conservation Club to use its facilities, and last, but not least, getting students to participate.
Success came quickly for the Demons. Qualifying for the 2006 national tourney, their senior squad tied for first and lost in a shoot-off.
The team has continued to hit its mark. The success has posed a bit of a problem.
"The school started by saying we could use a part of one of its trophy cases," said Wondrash. "I think we've now filled two of them."
Neither the school nor taxpayers provide any funding for the program. And all shooting is done off school grounds.
The Demons hold car washes, bake sales, solicit private donations and hold raffles to raise the estimated $60,000 to compete through the season.
The shooters have been practicing three days a week since March. Many average six hours a week at the range, shooting 300 to 400 targets a week.
Even among students at Burlington, awareness of the trapshooting team is relatively low.
"I think way less than half the students know about it," said Jon Ebbers, a recently graduated senior who took top single honors in the Wisconsin state shoot with a 198 out of 200.
Ebbers has parlayed his participation in the Burlington program to a full scholarship at Lindenwood University in St. Charles, Missouri. Next year he'll compete on the school's national championship shooting team.
The Demons aren't flying completely under the radar, though. Rep. Samantha Kerkman (R-Genoa City) stopped by the practice Tuesday to present a Wisconsin state flag to the team. The flag, which had flown over the capitol, will join those of at least 30 other states at the national shoot.
And after the first season, the athletic director agreed to make trapshooting a letter sport at Burlington.
Wondrash remembers the emotion displayed by several team members when they were awarded their first varsity "B."
That time, the moisture wasn't rain.
Send e-mail to psmith@journalsentinel.com
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