This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Sports

Tartan High School Starts a Trap Shooting Team

In its first year, the Tartan trap team has received coaching and financial help from the Oakdale Gun Club.

Ten years after the Minnesota State High School Clay Target League (MSHSCTL) began, Ken Balfanz and Matt Duffee got a trap team started at Tartan High School.

“Matt and I went shooting with a couple of students and after awhile, we thought we would get a team together,” Balfanz said.

About 24 students tried out for the team, Balfanz said, which requires a $200 registration fee along with a firearm safety license.

Find out what's happening in Oakdalewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Sponsored by the Oakdale Gun Club, Tartan practices there every Monday after school.

“The Oakdale Gun Club allows for us to use 15 spots, so that is what we have on our team,” Balfanz said. “We are lucky to have them, and they have been great to us since we started.”

Find out what's happening in Oakdalewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Along with Balfanz and Duffee, Tartan has the luxury of employees at the gun club to help out as well.

In addition, Tartan principal John Bezek is an avid shooter and helped advocate for starting the team to District 622 officials, Balfanz said.

“Not a lot of school districts were up for this,” Balfanz said. “A lot of schools did not want to associate themselves with firearms. With Principal Bezek and his knowledge and understanding of it, he was a huge help in talking with our district.”

Each participant must go through firearm safety lessons to get a license. These could be done at local gun clubs.

Students are also required to leave their firearms at home and are given time to go home to get them before practice or a match.

“That is one thing we stress,” Balfanz said. “We don’t want our students to bring any of that to school, and are required to keep them at home.”

According to Balfanz that is something that he does not have to worry about with his students.

“Most of the people on our team were in Boy Scouts or Eagle Scouts,” Balfanz said. “They are really great kids and respect everything that is given to them.”

Tartan is part of the Minnesota Metro East Conference that consists of St. Paul Academy, Simley, Henry Sibley, Burnsvile and White Bear Lake.  It is currently in third place, one point behind St. Paul Academy and Simley for top honors.

Selection for this year’s team was based solely on the marks each participant made during tryouts. Since this is the first year, Balfanz and Duffe could not let participants build up equity with time put in, and were unable to consider whether a student might have been having an off-day.

“We just had to go by what they did in tryouts,” Balfanz said. “Next year, we will have some from middle school try out and they have been practicing already. We see the time they put in and that could be a factor if they have a bad day.”

 The MSHSCTL is led by Jim Sable, who on the website states that in 2008, there were three teams in the league. There are 29 now and following the same plan as lacrosse in terms of going from a club sport to a Minnesota State High School League (MSHSL) sanctioned, that number is expected to grow.

“The goal of the league in order of importance are safety, fun and marksmanship,” Balfanz said.

It already appears Tartan is doing it all in its first year.

In tough economic times, Tartan has been appreciative of help from the Oakdale Gun Club. It has financially supported Tartan and has helped the participants become better and more educated.

“It’s not inexpensive to shoot trap,” Balfanz said. “Though they didn’t have to, (the) Oakdale Gun Club has done everything they can to make it very attractive for our kids to shoot at their club and enjoy the sport.”

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?

More from Oakdale