Sitting in church one Sunday morning in 2001, Jim Sable, at age 62 one of the youngest members of his Twin Cities gun club, saw an announcement in the church bulletin: “Mentor needed as a trap shooting tutor.” He jumped at the chance to help reverse the aging trend among his peers. Calling it “divine providence,” Sable started tutoring a 14-year-old girl from the church in the fine art of winging clay pigeons with a 12-guage shotgun. She became the first member of the Orono High School trapshooting team.
By 2010, there were 340 students from around the state of Minnesota taking part in the sport. In 2012, there were 1,500. In 2014, there were 6,100.
So far this year 8,600 high-school students, on 268 teams, are practicing those skills at 165 ranges across the state. Hundreds more have been turned away for lack of facilities and coaches such as Sable. Other states such as Wisconsin and North...