Fire Department gives boost to fledgling youth trap team

When people in Groton hear Queen of Hearts, it is not usually a character in a well-loved children’s classic story they think of, but rather the raffle that the Locke Volunteer Fire Department runs, as faithful volunteers bring those raffle tickets to Groton each week to make it convenient for its residents to participate.

On May 20, the jackpot that was awarded in the last raffle was at the state cap of $300,000. The fire department retains its share of the funds raised not only for needs it has, but also to help meet needs in the community.

This past August, one of the contributions made was $10,000 to the Youth Trap League in Moravia, which students from Groton, Homer and Moravia are a part of and for which all involved are very grateful.

Out of a mutual fondness for trap shooting, John Birmingham, Moravia Central School District superintendent, and Shawn Becker, Board of Education (BOE) vice president, discovered the USA High School Clay Target League and brought a request to start the sport to the Moravia BOE for approval in mid-2020. It has taken off from there.

With Birmingham as head coach, Becker and Mark Strong are the shooting coaches for the team.

Strong, who has been shooting clay targets his entire life, won the state championship for trap in Alaska in 1983 when he was in the United States Air Force.

“This scholastic shooting program is the fastest growing and safest school sport today,” Strong said. “And colleges in other parts of the country give full-ride scholarships for trap shooting — they recruit for it just like any other sport.”

The team practices and holds its official shoots at the Groton Rod & Gun Club every Saturday morning from 8 to 11 a.m. Scores are submitted to the New York State High School Clay Target League, and students who qualify may go on to state finals in Cicero, New York, and nationals in Michigan.

“We have six teams in our league,” Strong said. “We were second in the league our first season and first this fall season. One-hundred-twelve schools in our state participate. Most students have their own guns and provide their own ammunition, but the Groton Rod & Gun Club has been a huge sponsor by providing the targets and shooting fees for the kids.”

Bailee Brown, James Nalley and Kyle Phillips, all juniors at Moravia, and Niomi Randolph, junior at Homer, qualified and participated in the national compsetition in Michigan this past July with 1,700 students.

“My grandfather shoots trap and got me interested in the school team,” Brown said. “I was nervous but excited to be there. I learned shooting techniques from students from other states.”

Nalley shared a similar experience.

“It was fun,” he said. “I was nervous about how many traps there were — 49 compared to two at our gun club — but it was a beneficial experience.”

“It was … different,” Phillips said. “Instead of just two traps, it was constant shooting, and the walk was dreadful, but I liked it.”

Randolph, who ranked as the No. 1 girl in the fall league conference and third girl overall in the New York State competition, said she had never been to anything like it.

“It was a little overwhelming but still a lot of fun,” Randolph said. “I never fired a gun in my life until I joined this team, but I love it.”

In the New York state competition, Brown was just one target behind Randolph in the rankings.

“These girls have both shot way above our expectations,” Strong said. “The boys try really hard to keep up with them!”

James Parker, a senior at Moravia, has been with the team since its inception. He saw it as a “good opportunity to go different places and get better with firearms.”

Parker started out slow but got progressively better and finished this season as the No. 1 ranked boy in the conference and second overall in the novice class in New York state.

Nicholas Hall, a sophomore at Groton, and Payton Kreplin-Bouck, a seventh-grader at Moravia, are the newest members of the team. Both have been involved for about three months.

Kreplin-Bouck said she has always been “into hunting and shooting” and thought it would be fun. She said she has good and bad days at it, but it’s still fun.

Hall’s friend, Cooper Hewitt, a freshman at Groton, told him about the team. Hall got excited and joined right away.

“I grew up with guns and hunting,” Hall said. “I’ve loved every minute of this team, even in the cold and pouring rain, and I’ve learned a lot from the coaches.”

In addition to Hall and Hewitt, Cayden Antrum, Caiden Dryja, Alexa Miller and Michael Shurtleff are the other Groton students on the team.

“There’s a lot to it for all these kids,” Strong said. “They have to take the hunter safety course and an online safety course through the league. Then, they have to have their home school athletic director [AD] approve them as well as the Moravia AD. They also need to have a parent or someone over 18 to come with them to everything to transport the guns and ammo.”

Strong said there are 15 students total in the current fall league, and although they have their seasons in spring and fall, they shoot year round at the gun club.

“We always encourage any student who wants to come and try it out to see if they like it to come up on Saturday mornings and join us,” Strong added. “The kids really love it when people just come and watch them shoot and show their support. This is a super-rewarding program for the coaches, and the friendships and camaraderie among the kids is so good to see, especially with some of these schools that are usually rivals.”

When asked what hopes the coaches have for utilizing the $10,000 donation from the Locke Fire Department, Strong said, “to help subsidize kids to get to nationals and to keep this club going well into the future. We are just so grateful.”

Groton on the Inside appears weekly. Submit news ideas to Linda Competillo, lmc10@cornell.edu or (607) 227-4922.

In brief: 
 
Capital project: Important dates
 
The Groton Central School District is proposing a capital project that will address necessary infrastructure and repairs to the buildings and grounds, upgrades to its athletic facilities to ensure the safety and well-being of the students, and renovation of the elementary school basement to allow for the expansion of the STEAM initiative with a new science learning center for its youngest learners.

The district will hold a public information session on the project at 6 p.m. Nov. 8 in the high school STEAM Lab, 400 Peru Rd. There will be a public hearing held at 6 p.m. Nov. 29 in the STEAM Lab and a public vote on the project from noon to 9 p.m. Dec. 7 in the district office.

Dinners in McLean 

The McLean firefighters will offer a drive-thru turkey dinner with all the trimmings and homemade pie from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Nov. 7 at the McLean Fire Station. Dinners are $12 each. Email mfdfundraising@gmail.com for a pickup time.

The McLean Community Church, 50 Church St., will hold a takeout meatloaf dinner from 4 to 6 p.m. Nov. 13. Dinners are $12 each and include old-fashioned meatloaf, garlic mashed potatoes, vegetable medley and apple crisp. Reservations required by Nov. 10 by calling (315) 496-9432.

Library Events 

The Groton Public Library (GPL) will hold its November Story Time at 6 p.m. Nov. 4 with stories, crafts and fun! Children may wear their pajamas, and space is limited to 20 children. Register by calling (607) 898-5055 or email director@grotonpubliclibrary.org.

The GPL Board of Trustees monthly meeting will be held in the library at 5:30 p.m. Nov. 11. Meetings are open to the public.