While there are plenty out there that don’t even know it exists, the Stillman Valley Clay Target League is getting set to close out its first season as a team.
It’s safe to say this will not be the last one, either.
“I guess we don’t need to gauge the interest around here anymore,” said Niki Vaughan, who created the league for the Stillman Valley high schoolers, which started at over 40 shooters. “It’s taken off, that’s for sure.”
There are 96 schools registered under the Illinois State High School Clay Target League, and there are now high school clay target leagues from six towns in the Rockford area: Stillman Valley, Byron, Oregon, Polo, Forreston and Hononegah.
But Stillman Valley’s started off with the biggest group of them all.
The Stillman Valley Clay Target League had 41 that showed up for the initial sign-ups. Thirty-six have stuck with the team through the whole season, which ends after Tuesday, May 20th’s weekly competition. That makes this the largest team in the Rockford area, and one of the biggest in the state.
This squad practices and competes at the shooting range at the SM&SF Club just outside of Stillman Valley and is a member of the USA Clay Target League. The season won’t end for this group until 19 of its best shooters head to the Brittany Shooting Park in Bunker Hill for the Illinois State High School Championships on June 1.
“This is a young team and it’s new to a lot of us, but it’s started off in a big way,” head coach is Andrew Dailey said. “And they’re pumped up for this state competition.”
Five shooters take to the range at once, and each shooter gets a total of 50 shots at the flying clay pigeons. All shooters must have a Hunter Safety Education Certificate, and they use either a 12- or 20-gauge shotgun.
Shooters are strictly judged by how many flying targets they hit.
“That’s what it’s all about,” said Stillman Valley sophomore Wavelynd Faerber, who leads the team with a 39 out of 50 average. “I think I’m doing pretty well to start it off … The whole team is off to a great start.”
Faerber heads down the backstretch at 38th out of 325 in the conference, and 256th out of 1,727 in the state. Tristen Bellars is second on the team and 598th in the league, and he is followed by Samuel Schelling, AJ Trefonas and Braeden Vaughan. The rest of the coaching staff is Russ Hanna, Jared Powless, Matt Allen and Andy Hutsell.
The team has been rising up the rankings all season.
“This is kind of a small-town thing, and we just happen to have a lot of people who like to shoot around here,” Braeden Vaughan said before going out for his round on Tuesday, May 13. “It’s pretty exciting. We’ve been getting better and better, and that’s been fun to watch. And now we’ll get to really see how good we are at state. We’re excited.”
Jay Taft is a Rockford Register Star sports reporter. Email him at jtaft@rrstar.com and sign up for the Rockford High School Sports Newsletter here at rrstar.com. Jay has covered a variety of sports, from the Chicago Bears and Blackhawks to local youth sports, since the turn of the century at the Register Star.
This article originally appeared on Rockford Register Star: A clay target league? Stillman Valley is one of the biggest as they prepare for state
Reporting by Jay Taft, Rockford Register Star / Rockford Register Star
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