Pair of Activities Seek Approval from St. Michael Schools

The St. Michael-Albertville school board meeting was the happening place to be last Monday night. Additional seating was added and the audience spilled out into the hallway as two different independent youth sports–trap shooting and bowling–made their case to become official club sports through the school district.

Trap Shooting

“Trap shooting is now the fastest growing high school sport in the state,” youth shooting coordinator Jim Sable said, citing an article in a recent Sunday edition of the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

Upon learning that the average trap shooter in the state’s gun clubs were at least in their 50s, Sable found himself in a different role than he had intended for his retirement: working to create a new generation of trap shooting enthusiasts to keep the sport alive and thriving well into the future.

Orono and Wayzata were the first schools to jump on board, and Sable said the state’s program has doubled in size each year since then to possibly 70 teams for this coming school year.

St. Michael-Albertville’s team was formed three years ago and is sponsored by the Crow River Gun Club, and the high school team took first place in the state tournament last year, coach Scott Berning said. He said the team went from 23 students, both male and female, participating in its first year to 58 today.

Bowling

Dave Green, head coach of the STMA club bowling team, which will be entering its fourth year, has grown from 10 members to 16 in three seasons. The team ranked ninth in the state out of 35 teams, and first place in the state for average score per game.

Green said bowling is the fastest growing high school sport in the nation, with bowlers outnumbering hockey players nationwide. Along with trapshooting, this club also serves both genders on the same league.

Both clubs said some of their main goals are to allow their students the opportunity to be recognized for their participation in the yearbook and to receive a varsity letter.

Both teams also brought up the point that their sports draw in students who may not typically be involved in school athletics, giving students a connection to the school that these students otherwise would not have.

“As a school, there is no greater thing than to see students achieve and do well,” said superintendent Dr. Jim Behle.

However, he said that budget uncertainty plays a big role in any decision to add additional school sports.

However, the Annandale school district has come up with a solution that Behle said may be workable here as well, which was to create an independent provider extra-curricular program. This allows the school to recognize the activity as a club and have students represent their school as they compete, but does not contribute funding for the sport.

Such an agreement would place additional responsibilities on the two-person activities department, such as keeping up with grades, keeping track of background checks, and other functions.  Legal counsel would need to be consulted to determine any liability and insurance issues.

The board and administration seemed willing to work with the idea to get more kids involved in school activities, though more research need to be done.

“We would all like to make this happen if we can,” board chair Doug Birk said.

The school board will revisit the teams’ requests at the Sept. 6 board meeting.