Southwestern Wisconsin School District is looking forward to the upcoming spring trapshooting season, coming out of their best season yet this fall.

SWSD placed second in the autumn conference, and of the 27 Southwestern students who participated on the team, 11 had scores that placed them in the state’s varsity ranking, said head coach Adam Fleege.

Two top-scoring females from the conference division were from SWSD’s team, as were two competitors who tied for seventh in the conference’s male division, said Fleege.

Southwestern’s team had four teammates place in the top 100 for the state overall.

One of SWSD’s top trapshooters, Claire Sabatos, has developed her own set of focusing techniques to get the best scores she can. “Sometimes I just have to take a breath, and sometimes I’m humming a song in my head,” she said.

Not dwelling on missed shots is key to staying in the game, added Sabatos, but “That’s hard sometimes.”

Cody McAulifee – another of Southwestern’s highperforming trapshooting team members – agreed that remaining in the moment is helpful, but it can be challenging to do.

When he makes mistakes, he says that “not getting mad at (himself )” is often difficult, but it’s pivotal to improving.

“I sing to myself ” to try to keep focused on the present, he added.

SWSD trapshooting coach Dave Sabatos, father of Claire Sabatos, said that one of the best parts about coaching trapshooting is being able to watch the students improve.

It’s also been interesting watching the level of competition increase statewide and even nationally, said Dave.

“(Trapshooting is) really becoming a pretty popular thing,” he noted.

Dave was happy to be able to introduce his daughter Claire to the sport. Though he noted that she didn’t want to compete at first, she loves it now.

“I wish I could shoot as good as her,” at this point, he admitted.

Both Claire and McAulifee have backgrounds in hunting, but only probably around half the students on Southwestern’s trapshooting team come into the sport with that type of experience under their belt, said the coaches.

They just need to complete safety training to use firearms to join the team, and SWSD has equipment they can use if they don’t have their own guns, said Fleege.

Students in grades 6 through 12 are eligible to join.

During the shorter fall season there are five weeks of competition following a week of practice. Students attempt to shoot 50 clay ‘birds’ per week.

The number that each successfully shoots gets entered into a computer system to compare with other conference school athletes to determine winners of the season and overall rankings. So even though schools from across the state are competing headto- head, the fall competitions between them aren’t actually taking place in person, said Fleege.

“I always count in my head,” and keep a tally of targets hit versus missed, said McAulifee, though he admits it probably is more stress-inducing than motivating.

Claire said she prefers not to think about her scores when she can help it.

It’s easier said than done to avoid thinking about rankings though, said Dave. Often, “coaches are counting too” while their students shoot.

Still, to help students improve, “I think the big thing that we try to teach them is to be consistent in their stance and how they’re holding things so that really there’s no thought; it’s just basically a very mechanical way to shoot,” said Fleege. Participants need to avoid overthinking and “get their cadence down.”

“If you miss a shot, there’s always going to be another bird there,” said Fleege. So just like in life, it’s important to always be moving forward and not stress about things that have happened in the past.

SWSD is now looking forward to the spring season, when their numbers often increase to more around 30-40 team participants, said Fleege.

Then they’ll have the in-person spring state meet with around 2,000 to 2,500 competitors.

A national event proceeds in the summer in Michigan for those who qualify. Individuals from Southwestern have competed in it, but this year they’d love to qualify a whole team to participate, the coaches noted.

If they make it in, whether it rains or the sun shines come competition time, their shooters – who compete through all weather events, including wind and snow – will participate in the event as part of the confidence- and team-building sport, their coaches said.