South Dakota’s First Collegiate Trap Shooting Club Begins at Mount Marty College

Photo Credit: NSSF.org

ANKTON, SD – February 10, 2014 – Mount Marty College is pleased to announce the establishment of a club trap shooting team at the institution with shooting beginning in March 2014.  Mount Marty College will be the first institution of higher education in South Dakota to introduce trap shooting at the collegiate level.  The club team will consist of men and women shooters and will hold practices and local competitions at the Jim River Trap Range.  The MMC team will be coached by Rick Kalsow.

Kalsow is a certified trap shooting coach by the Iowa DNR, a certified level one shotgun coach by the NRA, has had four years of experience as a coach for the Lakes Area Youth Trap Club in Dickinson County, Iowa, is a 13 time ATA Industry All-American, a member of the 13th perfect 500×500 singles squad, and a member of the 2013 Iowa State Elite Trap Shooting Team.  Kalsow also spent time coaching the Iowa State University Trap and Skeet Team which included a trip to the ACUI National Tournament in San Antonio, TX.

With hunting being one of the largest industries in the state of South Dakota, Mount Marty College hopes to see a great interest in the new club sport.  It will also raise awareness and skill with youth, promote safety in hunting, and generate a new opportunity for MMC’s current and prospective students.

The goal of the program is to develop a team that is capable of competing at a national collegiate level, while providing awareness of the sport at a local and regional level and promoting gun safety.  It will also teach gun safety, trap shooting techniques and provide three annual collegiate level competition opportunities with other teams; including a local invitational competition.

Charles Iverson, Mount Marty College Athletics Director, sees the new club sport as a great fit for the region and Mount Marty College. “The addition of this sport really made sense to us.  With hunting and outdoor recreation being so popular in the region we knew there would be interest on the part of the students.  We expect to put together a team of 25 right away in February and be shooting by March, weather permitting.  Our ultimate goal is to get our shooters prepared and qualified for a national competition by this time next year.”

The majority of the funding to get the trap shooting program up and running is from a grant from the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) Collegiate Shooting Sports Initiative. NSSF has created a grant program specifically for public and private colleges and universities to increase shooting sports participation.  The Collegiate Shooting Sports Initiative grant program aims to grow the shooting sports at the collegiate level by providing direct grant assistance to colleges and universities seeking to establish new shooting clubs or teams and to support programs that were just developed in the 2013 spring semester. The program’s focus is recruitment and retention.

Iverson also added, “To build on the objectives of the trap shooting program and further promote awareness of trap shooting and gun safety, MMC is currently investigating the implementation of a trap shooting course to be added to the recreation curriculum.  We feel that would be a benefit to all students at MMC, regardless if they participate in the club program or not.”
For more information on the club trap shooting program contact MMC Athletic Director, Charles Iverson at 605-668-1529 or civerson@mtmc.edu.

Mount Marty College, located in Yankton, South Dakota, is a Catholic, Benedictine, coeducational institute of higher learning founded in 1936 by the Sisters of Saint Benedict of Yankton, South Dakota.  In keeping with the Benedictine tradition, the college exists as a community of learners. Primary emphasis is placed on the development of each person as a complete human being with intellectual competence, professional and personal skills, and a composite of moral, spiritual, and social values.  With an enrollment of over 1,100 students on all three campuses and approximately 600 students located on the Yankton campus, Mount Marty College is the region’s premier institution for higher learning.  To learn more about Mount Marty College visit www.mtmc.edu.