That’s when they settled on USA Clay Target League and that was the genesis of the formation of St. John Neumann’s target shooting club team. And, over the course of two seasons, the team has gotten plenty of interest.

“I approached the school and took the information in the fall of 2024. They were interested because it was something different, everyone participates, everyone goes to states and it’s based on your level of shooting,” Smith said.

Neumann competed in both states and nationals this year, showing the growth of the talent the roster has already.

“It goes by your score and ranks you that way, not by your age or your grade. So we have kids from sixth grade through 12th grade and they compete by their scores for the season, novice, JV or varsity,” Smith said. “We’re technically a club sport right now, the league is trying to get us to a PIAA level.”

PHOTOS PROVIDED Members of St. John Neumann’s trap shooting team had success this year with multiple individuals competing at the state tournament.

To get to being PIAA sanctioned, the sport would need to have 100 teams in Pennsylvania. Currently, there are roughly 80. However Smith noted that there is a rifle league in the PIAA, meaning target shooting may not be far behind.

St. John Neumann’s club team has competitors from not only Neumann, but two from Williamsport, two from South Williamsport and one from Montoursville. Neumann’s team consists of South Williamsport junior Cole Campbell, South Williamsport junior Noah Sanchez, Williamsport sixth grader Danzig Confer, Williamsport eighth grader Harrison Laurenson, Montoursville eighth grader Gregory Jackson, and Neumann freshmen Wade Smith, Evan Steele Brycen Rauch.

“(It) is good because it gets us to a full team to compete,” Smith said. “They compete individually and as a team.”

Last fall, the team had 12 kids on the roster. This year, it’s smaller but Smith said she doesn’t mind that because it allows her and her husband, who are the coaches, to get to work with the competitors more one on one for trap, skeet and five stand shooting.

The state meet for trap shooting was at the end of May and Neumann’s team competed against numerous schools near Pittsburgh who were bringing eight teams of five kids each. In total, 849 kids participated in the state trap shoot at Elysburg.

PHOTOS PROVIDED Members of St. John Neumann’s trap shooting team had success this year with multiple individuals competing at the state tournament.

Smith noted that Montoursville’s Greg Jackson placed eighth in the novice division and two were in the JV division with South Williamsport’s Cole Campbell finishing 25th and Evan Steele finishing 32 out of 248 shooters.

Trap shooting for the league in Pennsylvania consists of just under 1,500 competitors.

“Some of the kids were a little overwhelmed. I was like ‘this is only half.’ Nationals for trap is in Michigan and that’s in the second week of July and they cut off registration at 1,830 kids. It fills up in three days,” Smith said. “They don’t have a national tournament for skeet or five stand yet, but they’re hoping for it. I’ll say that this year it jumped 20-something kids in the skeet league, so it’s going up. But, we’re excited for the weekend to see how the kids do. Five stand there’s not as many kids, there’s 42. This is the first time most of them have done five stand.”

At the state trap meet, Jackson took eighth place out of 126 in the novice division and Confer tied for 100th out of 126. In the JV division, Campbell took 25th out of 248, Steele took 32nd out of 248 and in varsity competition, Smith tied for 242nd out of 444 competitors.

The league Neumann competes in runs eight weeks with three weeks of regular practice and and five weeks of competition. Neumann’s team shoots at their own club and the scores are entered online. Then it groups shooters per conference and then the league via scores.

PHOTOS PROVIDED Members of St. John Neumann’s trap shooting team had success this year with multiple individuals competing at the state tournament.

“That’s how they determine if you’re varsity, JV or novice by the end of the five weeks of competition,” Smith noted. “That gives you your spot going into states, and who you compete against.”

Smith and her husband got involved with shooting thanks to their son. And it was from seeing the lack of younger participants that they got the idea to form the team.

“Our oldest son has been shooting since he was 8, mainly shooting skeet, and my husband and I did a little bit. I shot some, but when we went to these shoots there were hardly any kids shooting. I said ‘there’s gotta be more kids out here who wanna shoot,'” Smith said. “He participates in 4H too, we got so many other boys on the team in 4H too just to get extra time shooting and go to a different level of competition. I was like well it’s worth a shot to approach them like doing something like this. The next closest school is Central Mountain. They have a huge team, they have like 35 kids on their team. I think the other direction is Hazleton.”

Trap shooting statistically is among the safest in high school competitions, something that may surprise many who read about it. In fact, since the trap league Neumann competes in started in 2008, there has not been a single injury.

“How many sports can say that,” Smith said with a laugh. “We started asking around, our son was asking around and got one or two of the boys interested, and one of the kids from 4H said can I do this? So we brought him on and one of the kids shot skeet, said I’d be interested. He’s from Loyalsock, he’s a senior now and moved onto other things at this point, but we had four kids starting out last year and then as the school started announcing how the kids were doing and anybody can join. We’ll teach you how to shoot and the safety, those kids know when we get back there, the phones go away. It’s time to be serious because you’re dealing with guns and ammo. The safety part of it they pick right up on because they want to do this, they want to have a team and do something different.”

The sport of shooting may not be growing at a rate that other sports have throughout Pennsylvania, but nonetheless there is still growth happening and kids being interested in trap, skeet and five stand shooting.

“I think because not every kid wants to play basketball and baseball. My kids have done both, but my older son really enjoys this. You’re outside, you’re competing but against yourself, but also have some kids around you with some kids with,” Smith said. “I know last year when I originally talked to the league about starting a team, there were 77 teams in Pennsylvania, and now they’re pushing 90. In one year’s time, it went up at least 10 schools. I think there’s 35 schools in Pennsylvania who have the program.”

Smith noted that they also work on fundraising and getting grants so that kids can compete. That includes recently receiving a grant from the National Rifle Association for ammo.

“We go around and get some sponsorships, we had people donate ammo. That’s our next, we got to re-stock from next year,” Smith said. “We do fall and spring. Fall there’s no states or anything, just a fun competition to get some practice in. But the spring’s when they have states and opportunity to go nationals if you wanna shoot trap.