The Crawford County Shooting Sports team is looking forward to its first meet of the season on April 6. That meet will be hosted by Ida County and will be at Schaller.

Practices began on March 11, said Head Coach Mike Schrum.

Depending on the weather, practices will take place every Monday.

“The team hit the ground running without skipping a beat from where they left off last season, and although the season is very young, the kids have done a great job in making their coaches proud already,” Schrum said in an email sent to media outlets.

He provided the following highlights for the season.

• The overall student count is 62, which includes 53 returning team members and nine students who rejoined the team after an absence or joined the team for the first time.

• The team lost 13 members to graduation last season.

“With such a high number of students graduating, we weren’t sure exactly what to expect for student numbers this year, so it was exciting to see our inbound student numbers being a respectable number as well,” said Schrum.

He said the graduation of 13 team members created and opened up some “great opportunities for our team members to pick up that torch and step up to the podium. With practice scores being what they have been the first couple of weeks, it is apparent the students are very accepting of the challenge and the opportunity.”

Schrum continued that with the sustained large number of students on both the local teams as well as the teams in the conference, it was determined last year that a three-phase growth strategy was needed, with additional equipment and range upgrades needed for the shooting sports facility.

“On a meet day, it is not uncommon to have 175+ students utilizing our range for competition,” Schrum said. “On an average practice night, it is not uncommon to see 55+ students utilizing the range.

“Thanks to some incredible partners, the organization was able to successfully complete Phase 1 of our plan last year, with donations being received this year that will allow us to successfully complete Phase 2 yet this year,” he continued. “We never dreamt these would be one-year phases, so the outpouring of support has been extremely appreciated and we are forever thankful to the following sponsors for their support.”

Sponsors are Crawford County Chapter of Pheasants Forever, Iowa Chapter of Safari Club International, Community Foundation of Southwest Iowa, Denison Rotary Club, Farmers Mutual Insurance of Schleswig, Bobby Boettger and Blazin “B” Ranch, and the Colton Claussen Family.

Story Ads 1

Following is the meet schedule for the season.

Saturday, April 6: at Schaller, Ida County host
Saturday, April 13: at Dedham, Carroll County host
Saturday, April 20: home meet at Denison
Saturday, April 27: at Dedham
Saturday, May 4: at Schaller
Saturday, May 11: at Denison
Saturday, May 25: at Schaller for the 100 target conference finals
June 2-9: state meet at the Cedar Falls Gun Club

Schrum stated, “We leave an open invitation to all donors or anyone interested from the general public that wishes to learn more about our organization to stop out for a home meet or to contact a coach to see what the excitement is all about. We are extremely proud of the team and the family we have grown and would love nothing more than to show all who we are and what we are all about.”

Crawford County Shooting Sports is a member of the Western Iowa Conference. Other teams in the conference are Carroll County Shooting Sports, Ida County Shooting Sports, South Central Calhoun and the MVAOCOU Rams.

Follow us on Facebook for the latest news and updates