Wilbur boy wins National Skeet title

WILBUR - Cole Snider, a freshman at Wilbur-Creston High School, is the new 2023 USA National Skeet Champion.

He competed virtually against 650 high school skeet shooters from around the country at the National Tournament held in June and came out in first place. During the National Tournament competition, he shot 100 times and missed only twice.

In the five weeks of the skeet shooting season, Snider held a 25% average with a score of 23.6 and finished the season in third place overall.

His reaction to receiving the honor is subdued, which may reflect the calm and steady character necessary to compete in the shooting sport.

"I think it's awesome," mother Aimee Snider said. "We are pretty proud of him."

Snider competed as an eighth grader and has four more years to compete in the USA High School Clay Target program. Besides two days of skeet shooting practice each week, Snider also participates in football and wrestling at the high Sshool.

He has gone to state as a wrestling alternate and been part of a baseball team participating in the state tournament.

Snider's future plans include striving to get better at his shooting and he is aiming for a scholarship offered by the National League.

"We will see where that takes me," he said.

Many colleges in the United States offer competitive shooting programs.

The local high school clay target group offers two types of clay target shooting. Trap shooting involves clay targets launched into the air while the shooter stands at a station shooting at them.

In skeet shooting, targets are launched from two different locations which come at a variety of angles, making it more challenging than trap shooting.

According to Snider, fewer kids compete in skeet shooting because it is harder.

"A lot of students start out in trap and move onto skeet, "he said.

Snider is part of the Wilbur-Creston-ACH High School Clay Target Team which practices and competes at the Almira Gun Club. The local clay target club was started in the spring of 2021 as an extracurricular activity program for local students from sixth through 12th grade.

The goal of the club is to provide safety, fun and marksmanship for youth. This year there were 25 members of the club from Wilbur-Creston and ACH school districts.

The entire team competed at the State competition in June.

The USA High School Clay Target program began in 2000 to address a dwindling number of young shooters, which jeopardized the future of the sport. There has been exponential growth in the sport over the last 23 years. In 2012 there were 1,715 participants in the high school extracurricular program and are now over 34,000 participants.

The new season for the sport begins in Spring 2024. Any sixth through 12th grade student in the Wilbur-Creston or Almira-Coulee-Hartline school districts is eligible to join.