At EHS, sports are considered one of the most uniting activities. Hundreds watch football, soccer and basketball, but not many students are aware that EHS has its very own trap team.

Even less may know what trap team actually does. Despite the title, members do not trap animals for sport, but instead they specialize in shooting short and long-distance targets.

Senior Mitchell Heberer explained that although trap team is classified as a club instead of a sport, they still uphold athletic traditions.

“It is a club; however, we receive (varsity) letters,” he said. The varsity letters are well-deserved, as the members devote time every week to training.

Both the varsity and junior varsity squad members train in the evenings at the Edwardsville Gun Club. The practices are usually on Tuesdays for up to an hour and a half, according to varsity member Carson Whitney.

The squads compete in a national competition in August. This is known as their league competition. Athletes from the entire Midwest compete in two divisions: singles and handicap.

Singles counts how many targets one hits, and handicap calculates the amount of yardage one must step back depending on how they did in the singles round. The better shot you have, the more of a handicap you gain for the next round. It is a double-edged sword—or in this instance, gun.

The fall season started Aug. 22 and members are hoping to improve both the school’s ranking and their individual scores.

“I’m looking forward to making new friends,” freshman Lucy Rapp said. She hopes to expand her social life this season, but her abilities are another priority. She explained that “getting close to shooting 25 (targets) straight and making the league in the fall” are her goals.

As a freshman, Rapp is excited for her first year in the club, and seniors in the club feel the same way about their final year. Many are planning to try and beat their own scores, or “run the hundred,” which means to hit one hundred targets straight, never missing.

Heberer aspires to reach this Herculean goal, while Whitney hopes to improve his personal shooting record, even if it “means I would have to shoot over 93 (targets) out of 100.”

Will Skigen is one of the few seniors who has already managed to run the one hundred successfully, and his current goals are to improve his already impressive scores.

Whether the member is a senior or a freshman, they’re excited for the upcoming trap season, and they are ready to put in effort for the club they love. High expectations and high hopes await the squads for the ’17-’18 season.

“Trap is really fun. . .” Whitney said. “And I enjoy representing our school.”