The calming silence is broken: “Bang, Bang, Bang.” Junior George Kruse practices shooting clay pigeons out of the air. Kruse has been shooting for years and is preparing to go out with a bang in his senior season next year.
Kruse is a top placing shooter for the Trap team; he consistently sits at the top of the leaderboards after every competition week in and week out. Kruse ended his junior season placed in the top 100 in the state and top 500 in the country.
“I only managed to miss 12 out of 250 targets all year so an average of 23.8 over the season, it was enough to put me in the top 100 in the state of minnesota,” Kruse said.
Kruse has been shooting for a few years. He started his freshman year when his mom’s boyfriend suggested he tried out. Ever since then, it has been clear that he loved it from the start.
Sophomore teammate Mitchell Trisler said that Kruse has an “unconditional love for the sport,” and it is “pretty clear that this is his passion.”
Kruse is a leader on the trap team not only does he lead on during the competitions, he also leads by shooting well or just keeping an overall good spirit around the team. This has lead to everyone’s score around him improving because of the atmosphere around him.
“For how good of a shot he is, he is pretty good at leading people. It’s pretty good to show up and see he is who your shooting with that day,” senior teammate Joey Harrington.
Kruse does not shoot trap all year round. He takes a break during the offseason to do other things, like working on cars and at his job. But once trap season rolls back around, he is straight back into things in full force.
Kruse explained that he does not do anything over the offseason. Even though he takes the offseason fully off, when he gets back, he is still close to 100% right out of the gates.
Kruse has some large goals for his senior season, with finishing in the top 100 last year, he has high expectations for how he preforms in his final season. He expects to be one of the top shooters in the state, and he hopes for even a national placement by the end of the season.
“I’m hoping to get at least top 10 in the state and hopefully even top 100 in the country, but that’s been my big goal for years,” Kruse said.
At the end of the day, Kruse is going to shoot for the stars next year with his high expectations, and he is always improving leadership skills. Next year, he is shaping up to be the perfect storm for a top 10 season.
“My experience shooting trap has been pretty good, I haven’t had many negatives over the last three years. I mean I have improved every year and I don’t expect that to stop now,” Kruse said.
