Badin High School’s Trap Shooting Club Team Finds National Success
When Isabelle Helton learned how to shoot through Butler County 4-H Sharp Shooters, she was only eight years old. Now, a senior at Badin High School, she’s a captain of the Badin Trap Shooting Team and routinely wins competitions with her team.
Trap Shooting is a clay pigeon shooting sport, where clay targets are launched into the air and the athlete must aim and shoot the target with a shotgun. Developing the discipline to reliably hit the targets takes consistent practice, which has been part of Helton’s life as she grew her skills over the years.
“I like that it’s both an individual and a team sport,” explains Helton. “You train yourself, but you also train with a squad that you shoot with, and we each have a certain way of shooting and we know that about each other.”
The club began back in 2011, when Mark Arnold’s son was coming to Badin and a group of students came together to start shooting over at the Butler County Sportsman’s Club. From the start, Arnold and the team members were very safety conscious. Even students who are just getting started take a rigorous training.
“We start in the cafeteria at Badin with two nights of basic shotgun safety and knowledge,” explains Arnold. “Then we head to the Sportsman’s Association for on-range training with a certified instructor on the line with them. We make sure we have two levels of back-up until they’ve learned to load and unload the gun on their own.”
Arnold has made it a priority to get parents involved, letting them take the safety training and learn to shoot when there’s time.
Through the near 10 year history of the club, the team has seen some strong growth, from the 16 initial interested members to nearly 45 active teammates. They’ve gone from taking turns with a single shotgun at the start to having raised enough funds to provide a set of club shotguns and club-provided ammunition.
The team has also grown in skill, with wins at state, regional and national events over the years. Members of the team have ended up going to college with scholarships for shooting sports.
Helton mentions that she enjoys the variety and the options at competitions, where some events have athletes shooting from different distances, or who shoot two clay pigeons launched at the same time.
“You have to have patience, especially when you’re starting out,” she says. “It’s hard to learn how to do this sport, but even when you’re really into it, you’ll randomly change something about your stance or how you’re holding the gun, and you’ll have to re-figure that out. There’s no one who just learned how to shoot and then continued perfectly; there are always bumps in the road.”
Arnold echoed the positive experiences that the team has and the life lessons they learn.
“They learn self-esteem, camaraderie, leadership ability. The squads bring out school spirit, and everyone thinks about what they can do to help out the team,” says Arnold. “I get excitement out of seeing someone shoot their first 25-straight ever, but also I enjoy seeing us win national titles. I love seeing the kids high-fiving each other when they see each other succeed.”
Helton, who intends to continue honing her skills when in college, gives encouragement to anyone who has the opportunity to learn.
“Don’t give up if you get bad scores; it’s rare that anyone can do 8 out of 25 to start, and I was shooting zeroes at first,” she says. “As a captain, you help new kids each year, and I really like to be able to stand next to them and see it click for them.”
