Eden Prairie’s trap team is a small part of a growing sport

The Eden Prairie trap team is relatively small, with 13 members for the spring 2024 season, and young, after several seniors graduated in 2023. 

All of the members have undergone Minnesota Department of Natural Resources firearms safety certifications; the USA Clay Target League also provides a student-athlete firearm education certification, which is another option. “One of the requirements to join the team is a safety certificate,” notes head coach Hans Froseth.

According to a press release from the Minnesota State High School Clay Target League, such sports are among the most popular in the state, with over 12,000 middle and high school students competing. Nationwide, over 37,000 athletes are registered in 2024 high school, college and homeschool programs, a new participation record, according to parent organization USA Clay Target League.

Eden Prairie’s team does include middle school students, Froseth said, noting that there is no grade requirement. “It’s that certificate requirement,” he said. The Minnesota DNR course is open to those aged 11 and older. Male and female athletes compete on the same trap team. 

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The  Eagles trap team holds its practices and regular season competitions at the Minneapolis Gun Club in Prior Lake, as do multiple other schools. “Most schools have their own football stadium. But no schools I know of, at least in the Cities, have their own trap field,” Froseth commented. 

The game of trap is played with athletes using shotguns to shoot at clay targets, or “birds,” that are launched from a “house” at 12.5 degrees of separation. “It’s random, but you do know that it won’t come flying over your head,” Froseth said. Athletes shoot the targets from five different stations 16 yards away from the trap house. A full round is 50 shots, broken into two portions of 25 shots apiece. 

Nic Annunziato, an EPHS senior who is the 2024 trap team captain, made 25 out of 25 shots during state competition in 2022, which qualified him for varsity. “If you want to letter in trap, you have to meet x amount of targets in the season or x amount of targets in one competition,” Froseth said. All team members, however, participate together: “It’s not a varsity line and a JV line like a lot of other sports.”

“When you hit that 25, you’re on top of the world, basically,” Annunziato said. “I’m a competitive person. I’ve played hockey; I’ve played sports all my life. So I wanted to be as good as (previous team captain Zach Dvoracek). He would shoot 25 almost every week.”

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Ranked in top third of conference

Trap athletes receive their individual scores, which are added together to form a team score. Division rankings are based on averages calculated by factors including how many targets were broken in those scores and the number of athletes on the team. Eden Prairie’s team participates in Class 1A, Conference 3, where they are currently ranked in the top third. In the previous three seasons, the Eden Prairie team finished with one first place in conference and two second places. 

Each team is responsible for posting its own scores and filling its own traps. “You have to have a coach with some integrity,” Froseth said. 

Although a school-sanctioned sport, trap receives no school funding and also faces some other unique challenges, Froseth noted. “Of course, you cannot have your guns at school. And we’re not even allowed to use the school buses. By state statute, a school bus is part of the school, and we’re not allowed to have firearms there, so we have to commute or carpool. Our practices are not extremely exciting, but we have quite a few parents there, half of which is because they had to drive their student there.”

When he was younger, Annunziato said, his mom drove him to practice. He was originally interested, he said, based on other family experiences, such as trap shooting and hunting with his dad and brother. “I was kind of nervous the first year,” he said. “Everyone there was older than me. I was a little intimated, but I realized I was a pretty good shot, and I shot better than most of them. So I kind of figured this is fun; I’d keep doing this.” 

This year, Annunziato started an additional captain’s practice for the team, which they hadn’t had before. Through fundraising and other efforts, “Our team is fortunate we have the budget we can pay for one,” Froseth said. “It’s expensive to shoot. We have to have enough shot shells to shoot for 10 weeks straight 50 times, so 500 shells per person minimum. And that doesn’t include state, and it doesn’t include any practices. Five hundred shot shells nowadays is 400 bucks.” 

The trap team’s season generally includes three weekly practices, then 10 weeks of once-a-week competition, concluding with the state meet in Alexandria. Eden Prairie will compete at state this year on Monday, June 10. 

“It’s a lifelong sport,” Froseth said. “And it is very controlled from the start. We are not there to teach them how to shoot a gun. You have to have your own gun, and you have to have the certification to join. So that contributes to safety. 

“Trap is not a contact sport,” Froseth continued. “When you sign up for football, you know that you may get a concussion. That’s a full-contact sport. When you sign up for trap, you know that everybody around you, including the coaches, has met a higher standard that isn’t just a walk-on game or position. We can’t afford to have one little injury.”

According to the USA Clay Target League, there have been no reported injuries since the League’s inception in 2001.

Annunziato noted that he had received injuries from falls or hyperextensions in hockey, “but that’s just part of the game. It’s not a part of trap shooting. It’s been drilled into my head: utmost safety, utmost caution and respect for guns.” 

Although Annunziato will graduate this year, he said he’s been trying to recruit more members to the trap team. “I see that we’re kind of growing more in popularity, at least I hope so,” he said.