The Formation of Prior Lake High School Trapshooting

Who would expect an idea for a high school varsity sports program to arise from the dugout of a baseball game? Well, that’s exactly how the idea came up for a Trapshooting team for Prior Lake, according to Scott Conrad, head coach of the Prior Lake Trapshooting Team.

This occurred in 2008. Coach Conrad explained that “the process was mainly done by Chris Hesch. It was a matter of trying to determine what was needed from the school. The high school had to allow — first we had to ask the school board for permission to have a team. That was voted unanimously 7-0 in our favor, allowing us to start the team” and the rest is history.

Chris Hesch, former Board President, is no longer associated with the team. Another one of the founders, Larry Stier, is an assistant coach who also serves on the board, making team decisions.

During the regular season, the team competes at the Minneapolis Gun Club which is in Credit River Township. There are numerous locations in which a tournament can take place, but the state tournament is at Alexandria, and the Minnesota State High School Final Tournament is at the Minneapolis Gun Club as well.

“The program started out with 21 athletes in 2008 with none of them having any kind of background in shooting. And we now have 75 on the team who are all pretty good. None of them are novices, so, it’s really grown,” added Conrad. There were also 17 individuals who did not make the team when they tried out so there could have been 92 on the team in 2016. According to middle school interest, Conrad does not see any decay or growth in the program anytime soon. He believes the interest will stay right as it is.

The team has won six straight conference titles and hopes to bring home another one in this season. Also, in the Fall Skeet League, the team won the conference title this year. The team had two athletes who made the All-State team for the first time in program history last year. According to Conrad, captains are selected by coaches who they believe to be upstanding citizens on and off the range. “Some of them are our best shooters in addition to our best kids. As far as when they have our Prior Lake Trapshooting jerseys on at school, the underclassmen can go ‘oh, wow, that’s one of our captains.’ They can be a good person and a really good shooter, you know, that’s their role on our team,” says Conrad.

We look forward to a great season from our shooters!