"Fall River posted a team score of 485 out of 500, beating four schools tied at 484 for second place."

97% from a high school team under national championship pressure — that's not a participation trophy situation. Any competitive shooter knows how fast a string falls apart when it counts, and these kids held it together when four other programs were breathing down their necks.

"Two programs from the same state, separated by one bird."

One bird. Anyone who's called a station where they caught a crosser wrong knows exactly how thin that margin feels. Fall River and Dodgeville are probably shooting the same county birds in the same Wisconsin wind, and it still came down to a single clay.

The growth angle here is real. When I started paying attention to scholastic shooting, it was a footnote. 469 schools fielding trap teams is a different world — and it means a lot of those kids are getting their first serious trigger time in a structured, coached environment before they ever walk into an LGS on their own.

For those of you who shoot or have shot competitive trap — what's the biggest mental difference you've noticed between station practice and stepping up when the score actually matters?

Read the full article in The Handbook → | By Steve Duskett