There are 40,100 student-athletes stepping to the line this spring under the banner of the USA Clay Target League, competing on 2,094 high school and college teams backed by a small army of more than 12,000 coaches, team staff and volunteers. For a sport that rarely shows up on the evening highlight reel, those are participation numbers that would make most traditional sports programs take notice.
The spring surge is just the latest chapter in a run that has become almost routine for USACTL. The Minnesota-based nonprofit closed its 31st consecutive record-breaking season in 2025, posting 55,832 registered student-athletes across its high school, college and homeschool programs and logging 1,972 teams in total. Those athletes combined to break an estimated 75.2 million targets in a single year, supported by team staff working the lines and scoring squads.
The growth is not accidental. More than 100 new teams came online nationwide this year after schools took USACTL up on an offer that removes the single biggest barrier to launching a program: cost. Through the organization’s start-a-team assistance initiative, schools can stand up a new squad for free.
“Schools want the opportunity to give their students a place to develop their confidence, sportsmanship and teamwork without the high costs and limited playing opportunities of traditional sports,” USACTL President John Nelson said. “Clay target shooting sports are accessible to everyone. Everyone can participate. The ability for students to participate on their school’s team influences athletes’ lives for the better.”
That pitch is landing from coast to coast, and the grade-level data suggests it is sticking early. Roughly 72 percent of high school participants come from grades 9 through 12 while the remaining 28 percent are middle schoolers in grades 6 through 8, giving coaches a pipeline that grows up inside the program. Trap remains the dominant discipline at 80 percent of all competition, followed by skeet at 13 percent, sporting clays at 4 percent and five-stand at 3 percent.
“What I cherish most about competing is standing alongside my friends on the line, knowing we’re there not just to do our best to win, but also to have fun,” Savanna Atha, a Carolina Forest H.S. student from South Carolina said in the League’s 2025 Impact Report.
The calendar reflects the scale of the operation. The nine-week high school spring season is already in motion and will wrap on May 24. From there, most competitors will roll into their respective State Tournaments in June, with the top performers punching tickets to the USA High School Clay Target League National Championship in July.
The numbers behind those main events are worth a second look. Last year’s 29 State Tournaments combined to draw 27,000 athletes from 1,765 teams across 72 total event days in June, with seven individual tournaments each clearing the 1,000-athlete mark and roughly 31,000 tournament T-shirts going out the door. The National Championship in Mason, Michigan, then pulled 1,835 individual competitors from 455 high schools and 30 states, with the team event drawing 265 squads from 22 states. Keeping that field supplied required more than 20,000 boxes of ammunition and over 140,000 practice targets.
And if there is a single data point that captures just how deeply the sport has taken root in some corners of the country, it is this one: the 2025 Minnesota State High School Trap Championship drew 8,088 student-athletes to a single state event, a turnout USACTL bills as the largest shooting sport event in the world.
Beyond the trap fields, USACTL continues to build out its academic mission through the Jim Sable Scholarship, which honors the organization’s founder and his legacy of mentorship, marksmanship and conservation. Sable, a firearms safety instructor with more than 50 years of experience, was famous among his students for asking about homework before he asked about scores. He believed education came before everything else and that nothing should interfere with a student’s academic progress. Sable also championed the link between conservation funding and outdoor shooting sports, arguing that hunters and shooters are among the best stewards of the environment. The scholarship program was built squarely on those twin pillars, with 40 student-athletes earning awards for Environmental Sciences and Conservation Education in the most recent cycle.
More information and team startup resources are available at usaclaytarget.com.
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