The bright orange clay pigeon flies over their heads as senior Jenna Jahnke is at the ready to take fire with her 12-gauge shot gun.

BOOM!

Jahnke has a direct hit with the clay pigeon which shatters into tiny shards as it falls to the ground into a field.

Jahnke was a strong supporter and collaborator in the start of a trap shooting team for the high school in 2012 her sophomore year. The trap shooting team has seen strong positive feedback from the student public and has just begun its third season.

“I got into trapshooting about 4 years ago by my cousin,” said Jahnke. “He brought me out to Willow River Rod and Gun Club and taught me how to shoot. It is a form of clay pigeon shooting with a shotgun. There are 5 stations and one person at each station at a time. Each person shoots 5 shells at each station then rotates, for a total round of 25 shots.”

Jahnke fell in love with the sport since that day and wanted to go trap shooting every day she couldn’t. Her love for the sport grew to her friends, and they decided to start a club through the school.

“Shortly after I learned how to shoot I reached out to Jim Sable the director of the Minnesota state high school clay target league,” explained Jahnke. “Together, we worked with Stillwater’s athletic director to get a club formed at the school.”

The club functions in a competition against other schools and organizations, but it isn’t run like a normal sport’s competition.

“The competition between schools is virtual,” said Jahnke. “Every team has their designated day or days that they shoot once a week. Each kid shoots two rounds (50 targets) and the scores get sent in and then updated for ranking and scoring online.”

When Jahnke started the team three years ago, she was not expecting such a positive response from the school with the 86 Stillwater students that are apart of the club.

“The first year there were 18 kids,” said Jahnke. “Which was more than I had expected for the first year anyway. Then, the second year it grew to 74 participants, and then grew again this year with our 86 member club. I never thought it would be this popular, I think word of mouth got around about it after the first year and that’s why the big spike occurred.”

Jahnke stated that she along with most of the club members,“love the routine that comes with trapshooting. Doing the same thing every shot and trying to be consistent. It’s a good feeling and fun shooting a target and watching it shatter before your eyes as it falls to the ground.”