The BSM clay target team is entering its second year of existence and is returning better than ever with an outstanding roster of 61 shooters––compared to 36 last year. The team will experience significantly more depth than last year, and this will help boost their chances at a Class AAA first place state finish.

The clay target team meets Wednesday nights at Minnetonka Sportsman’s Club in Mound for roughly three hours. Upon arrival at the range, all 61 shooters sign up to be placed on a shooting squad. There are five people on each squad, shooting five rounds at five different stations for a total of twenty-five shells. The first three squads are called and walk out to their particular station on their trap field. The first person yells “pull”, and the clay target comes out of the house. The person shoots, then the second repeats this, all the way down to the fifth person. This happens four more times and then the stations rotate to the right. After that, another round of twenty-five is shot, making fifty the total number of clay pigeon targets each person shoots at. After shooting, coaches enter scores online via an honor system and compare them to scores of other teams in BSM’s division for that week.

Captains Adam Grazzini, Christian Bray, and Austin Bray will lead as their team’s first ever senior group. With coaches John Porisch, Greg Grazzini, and Rich Bray. The team has high hopes for this season, and with a nearly doubled team from last year, they should be able to place high in the State shoot. “This season we have a much larger and more experienced team. We hope to build on the skills that were introduced last year and we hope to be much more competitive in our new division,” senior captain Austin Bray said.

At state last year, varsity placed seventeenth out of twenty-three, and JV placed ninth out of twenty-six. These rankings should be improved as most of last season’s JV shooters have moved up to Varsity, strengthening the team. But what makes the team stand out from other sports is its laid-back culture that stands in the background of its competitive atmosphere, in addition to beautiful scenery at the range.

“I am most looking forward to enjoying a nice spring Wednesday evening at the shooting club, watching 61 boys and girls doing their best to break as many clays as they can out of twenty-five. Trap shooting is a social sport, a relaxing yet focused activity, and it really heightens the visual and audible senses with the smell of gunpowder and the speed at which clays are thrown from the trap house,” Porisch said.