For fun, Buzz Shike gathers with friends at the gun range to shoot clay targets.
He’s been tagging along with his dad on hunting trips in the Texas Hill Country since he was around 4 years old. Now, as a member of the Highland Park Competitive Target Team, Shike is on a path that could take him to the Olympics.
The team, which became an official club at Highland Park High School this past school year, consists of boys and girls in seventh through 12th grades. Some, like Shike, shoot competitively, while others participate recreationally.
Separate from club activities, Shike is competing in the USAS Shotgun National Championships this week, which is one step on his journey to be considered for the 2016 Olympics.
For the Highland Park team, students focus on three main shotgun target disciplines: sporting clay, American skeet and American trap.
Shike said he prefers sporting clay, which requires competitors to shoot 100 biodegradable clay targets at varying distances and launch points. American skeet and American trap have set courses.
“American trap and skeet, they are based on shooting perfectly,” Shike said. “On sporting clays, you can get by on missing 10 targets and still win the whole thing.”
Shike and other teammates have received finishes in the top five this season. Coach John Calandro said he’s hoping for more top scores and maybe a top-10 placement for his team at the Youth Target Foundation State Championship in San Antonio this month.
Getting started
Calandro, a 2006 Highland Park grad, shot competitively as an individual in high school, but at that point there wasn’t a school team for him to join.
In the time since he graduated from high school, the sport has gained popularity among young people.
The Lewisville-based YTF, of which the Highland Park team is a member, started with one team in 2007. Now it has about 500 registered youth teams across the state.
“We are the fastest growing area in the country for high school clay target sports,” said YTF national youth director Sean McLelland.
Since clay target shooting doesn’t fall under the University Interscholastic League, McLelland considers YTF as the governing body for the sport in Texas. It helps set up teams and hosts competitions throughout the state.
The Highland Park team has experienced considerable growth in its short existence. Calandro said he started with a handful of kids last school year, and now there are 40 members.
But building a new organization brings challenges.
Team members must pay their own expenses, which can run as high as $6,000 a year for things such as a gun, ammunition, clay targets and contest fees, Calandro said.
Calandro hopes to get to a point where some of that can be paid for, but as a fledgling group it isn’t there yet, he said. The team scheduled a fundraiser in early May to help alleviate some of those costs, but rains caused the event to be canceled.
The area’s extended period of bad weather has also put the team out of a practice facility.
Along with other area clubs, Highland Park practices at Elm Fork Shooting Sports in northwest Dallas. Flooding closed down the facility, and it will likely not reopen until the end of June.
The next closest public range with shotgun clay shooting is in Decatur, which would likely be too far to drive for weekly practices.
Having an accessible place to practice can really make a difference, especially since most of the kids are new to the sport.
“It’s a practice-makes-perfect kind of sport, so you got to keep doing it and keep doing it to iron out all the kinks,” Calandro said.
Safety first
Once the team gets back into action, its No. 1 priority will continue to be safety, Calandro said.
Before competing, members must take a gun-handling safety course, and before each competition, there’s usually a briefing to make sure participants remain mindful.
Buzz Shike’s dad, Paul, said that in addition to picking up life skills, shooting competitively has helped teach his son the responsibilities of handling a gun.
“I don’t fear guns around my son because he’s been taught. He knows what they are, how to handle them. He knows what to do,” Paul Shike said.
In addition to Calandro, there are two other coaches and a number of parents who help supervise the students during practices.
Along with drilling students on safety, Calandro hopes he instills in them an appreciation for the sport that they can pass down to future generations.
“Some will go shoot for a couple of years. For others, it will be a whole lifetime of shooting,” Calandro said.
CLAY TARGET SHOOTING
• The clay target is sometimes called a bird, but it looks nothing like one. Instead, it’s more of an inverted Frisbee.
• The target is not actually made of clay. Instead, some use a mixture of pitch and pulverized limestone or biodegradable materials.
• The average size of a target is 120 millimeters, but sizes can vary.
• In order to score a point, participants must pierce the target, causing a piece of it to break off.
Heather Noel/ Dallas Morning News
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