Five high schoolers line up with their shotgun in hand and ammo in their vest. One by one, they take turns shooting the clay pigeons. And one by one, the clay pigeons get shot up into the air for the next shooter. After doing one shot and waiting for the next one, they load their gun so they are prepared. As the clay pigeons shoot up into the air, the shooter follows it with his or her gun to make sure they hit it. Trying to not hit any actual bird that may be flying by. 

From the wide range of sports that are considered by the NSAA, there are some sports that are less recognized, one of which is trap shooting. Trap shooting is shooting a disk called a clay pigeon that is thrown in the air by a machine, and the more someone hits, the better they score.

“[Practice] is probably the most important thing you should do,” head trap shooting coach Kevin Conover said. “You’re 30 yards from that target by the time you hit it. That target can be going in any direction at about 42 mph. When you pull that trigger it’s still going to move five feet from where it was by the time the shoot from the shoot gun reaches it.”

From the outside looking in it doesn’t seem that difficult. However, it is more than just aiming and shooting.

“You need to know how to actually clean a gun and use your gun safely,” senior Christopher Lively said. “You need hand and eye coordination to track the targets and shoot them.”

Like many fall and spring sports, trap shooting is done outside. Weather can affect the shooter’s aim.

“The hardest part is dealing with how cold it is because they don’t really cancel shoots from being cold,” junior Xavier Swotek said. “Some days it’s 70 degree weather and sometimes we shoot in 10 degrees.”

This does later pay off for some athletes in that they can participate in the State Shoot. State, in any sport, is a big opportunity to compete with other people you may not have competed with before.

“State is one of the most fun things I’ve been to,” Swotek said. “It’s a lot of competing in the meet. It’s nice to compete in that big of a place.”

A lot of students can participate  in competing from sixth up to twelfth grade. Anyone can learn how to shoot at any time.

“It’s more hand eye coordination, you don’t have to be a top notch athlete to do it, but it’s very competitive,” Conover said.

With trap shooting being a smaller sport, Bellevue East and West practice and compete together along with the middle schools in Bellevue Public Schools (BPS). Students outside of BPS can also be a part of the trap team.

“If the school that they are going to have a team then the kids who are in that district have to shoot with that team,” Conover said. “Plattsmouth does not, so those kids are welcome to come up here and transfer in and shoot with us.”