Record number of participants expected for youth trap and skeet championships

WASILLA — Alaska Scholastic Clay Target Program-Youth Education in Shooting Sports organizers Neil and Lindy Moss had watched participation rise slowly in recent years. But this year, there’s been a spike.

The number of students interested in the youth shotgun shooting program jumped dramatically, and the results will be seen Saturday at fourth-annual Alaska SCTP Trap and Skeet Championship. About 70 middle school and high school-aged students are expected to hit Birchwood Shooting Park for the 2015 championships.

“It’s huge. It’s going to be a lot of fun,” Neil Moss said of the overall participation.

The 2015 numbers are about double the number of the total participants in the 2014 trap and skeet championships.

“We keep plugging away, telling everybody (about the program),” Moss said.

The 2015 event features students from high schools across the Valley. This year, the program was also introduced to local middle schools and Fronteras Spanish Immersion School. Moss used Fronteras as an example of the interest in recently introduced schools, and said more than 20 Fronteras students were eager to participate. Moss said participation among the high school-aged students has also skyrocketed. The program includes students from all the Valley high schools, and Moss said all but one of the local high schools (Houston, Wasilla, Colony and Palmer) had double the number of students participating compared to last year. The number of Palmer High students on the shooting team had tripled. The program also includes a student from the Valley’s newest high school, Redington, who shoots on the Wasilla team.

Lindy Moss said participation in the Valley spiked so quickly, the program had to put a temporary cap on the number of students that could participate locally. The SCTP, still in search of a home shooting range for the team in the Palmer-Wasilla area, practices and hosts its fall meets at the Birchwood Shooting Park south of Palmer. But the group has outgrown the Birchwood facility.

“We’re maxed out at Birchwood,” Lindy Moss said. “We’re in talks with Birchwood to help accommodate us to expand our program within their facilities, but we really need a place of our own in the Valley to practice.”

Lindy Moss said team members practice at least once each week at Birchwood, many practice twice a week, and students also schedule additional time with coaches to refine their skills. The current group has been working since September. Two major live events held in November. The first event was a trap shooting competition, with each participant getting 100 targets. The following weekend, there was a skeet competition, also with 100 targets per participant. Moss said there were 67 participants at the trap tournament, and 58 at the skeet meet.

Saturday’s competition will feature students in grades six through 12th, with students competing on both the varsity and junior varsity levels. In addition to the Valley teams, squads from South Anchorage, Sitka and Soldotna will compete in the championships.

The team champions, and the boy and girl with the highest overall score will earn major awards.

Each participant in Saturday’s competition will have 50 clay targets in the trap event and 50 targets in the skeet event.

In all, sixteen trophies and nearly 60 medals will be awarded Saturday. Some of the awards will be for work during the regular season. During the season, Moss said, the teams compete in virtual meets. Teams shoot on their home range, and send Moss the scores. The results are tabulated, and the top shooters of the virtual meets for the season will be announced Saturday.

Contact Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman sports editor Jeremiah Bartz at sports@frontiersman.com.