Trap shooting gaining popularity in Sauk Valley area

One of the fastest growing sports in the Sauk Valley area – and in the nation – is high school trap shooting.

In the Sauk Valley area alone, several teams have sprung up the past few years. Included in those local schools are Milledgeville, Polo, Eastland, Morrison, Prophetstown, Forreston and Faith Christian School.

Prophetstown is one of the bigger teams in the area with about 38 kids. After seven competition weeks this past season, it made a June 4 trip to Bunker Hill for the state championship, finishing eighth out of 47 teams.

At state, the competitions are broken down into three categories: novice, JV and varsity.

Prophetstown coach Gabe Olinger was pleased with how his team performed overall, but he was especially impressed with the novice group last season.

“At the state tournament, our novice team actually got second in the whole state,” Olinger said. “One boy from the team, Bryce Folsom, he just started shooting this year and his average was low enough during the league that he was still a novice. Well, in the last couple of weeks before state, he really improved and he ended up getting first in the novice division.”

Another standout for Prophetstown was Sabrina Soleta, who got second among females in conference 4. Overall, the team finished third in its conference.

At state, the scoring system is designed to allow smaller teams to compete with bigger ones. With the amount of variance from team to team, this system allows a team like Morrison to contend with one like Prophetstown.

“For state, they take the five best scores from the team from the varsity to get your team score. It kind of really levels the playing field since we have a real big team of around 38 kids,” Olinger said. “There’s some schools like Morrison, I think they only have like 12 kids on the team. If they have five kids that shoot really well, they can compete with the bigger teams.”

Morrison, which is coached by Andy Riggen and Mary Schaefer, is one of the startup teams having begun just two years ago.

With only eight kids on the roster – seven boys and one girl – the Mustangs are one of the smallest teams in the area.

Morrison also made the trip to Bunker Hill last season after battling through some challenging weather early on.

“We started with a lot of bad weather – rain, wind, etc. So the better weather made the shooting more fun,” Riggen said. “We had six school competitions, and we went to Bunker Hill for state. Most of the kids have only shot at one gun club because the scores are on the internet, and we don’t know who we’re shooting against. Being at state for the kids was a real eye-opener. They did very good that day.”

When Olinger started six years ago, there were about 80 kids competing at state. This year, there were 800.

“The sport has grown almost double every year since we started,” Olinger said. “It is actually the fastest-growing sport in the nation right now.”

Olinger and Riggen expect that trend of growth to continue for the foreseeable future.

“Trap shooting is a safe, growing sport and just getting a good start in Illinois,” Riggen said. “Trapshooting is known for having the nicest, friendliest people. We really enjoy it.”

“From what I’ve seen the last six years, the sport is growing exponentially every year,” Olinger said.