SPORTS NEWS

High school and middle school students who are interested in shotgun sports can register for the 2019-2020 season from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 6 at Mesa Public Library.

The program is under the New Mexico High School Clay Target Association and is open to all students in sixth through 12th grade, have a 2.0 GPA and have completed the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish Hunter Education Class or will complete it within 30 days of registration.

Practice is held from 5:30 p.m. to dusk on Wednesdays through October and changes to Sunday afternoons in November at the Los Alamos Sportsmen’s Club in Rendija Canyon.

Personal firearms are not a requirement to participate as the program has some shotguns available for use. Participants supply their own ammunition and pay $6 a week clays for two rounds of trap. Instruction is provided by NMDG&F-certified volunteer instructors so there is no cost for the instruction itself.

Students will have the opportunity to shoot trap, handicap and doubles trap. A parent is required to come with non-drivers and remain for the practice.

Students from throughout the area are invited to participate. During the 2018-2019 season, the team had shooters from Los Alamos, Rio Arriba, Santa Fe and Taos Counties who were attending various schools. No prior experience with a shotgun is necessary.

Several members of last season’s team traveled to the National Junior Olympic Shotgun Competition at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo., and competed in the New Mexico State High School Competition in Raton.

For more information, call Mike O’Neill, Los Alamos Sportsmen’s Club youth programs coordinator, 505.309.1762 or email shotgunoneill@gmail.com.