While thousands of Texans were out this weekend hunting doves, the Angelo State University Shotgun Sports Team spent some time at the San Angelo Claybird Association breaking clays.
This was their preliminary practice, split up over weekend days to work with the students’ schedules.
They’re taking turns shooting each discipline: sporting clays, skeet and trap — sharpening their skills and aiming for Fives, Tens, and Twenty-fives (a perfect round.)
ASU’S program is marking its tenth season with a big change.
The team has seen successful, but always through the hard work of faculty wearing multiple hats.
Now they have a dedicated shotgun coach: Ida Brown of the USA National Team, who says she’s very excited for a chance to build up a program.
“This is one of those sports where you are not limited by natural capabilities,” she said, “it’s 100-percent the kind of sport where if you work hard, you can get to the top.”
Brown watches with her clipboard while shooters take turns on the line.
“Right now, the key is more practice time,” she explained. “There’s also a mental factor to this competition; where if you’ve never hit 25 before, you almost don’t believe that you can do it…you might shoot 24 and think ‘this isn’t like me, this isn’t what I do’ — then you’ll miss that last one.”
Getting past that barrier and spending more time in the field is one way Brown hopes to help the team bring home the National Championship.
The team competes in each discipline individually, and as doubles teams.
So far everyone’s excited about having a dedicated coach — especially one who’s been such a recent competitor herself.
How Ida Brown Started Shooting
Brown grew up in California, and told me her experience with the sport was a little different than most people’s.
“I’ll be honest: I hated the sport when I started, with a passion.
“My brother and I were involved in different sports, and my parents wanted something where they could watch us both compete without having to be halfway across the state.
“My brother was naturally gifted at it…naturally… and to be honest, I didn’t like my younger brother being better than me. So, I stuck with it for the first year just out of spite.”
It’s a good thing she did. Shooting in local programs back home, and then across the region, she rose quickly through the rankings.
She said that her early team stood out because their coaches adapted.
“The most important thing they did was bring in outside experts when they felt that they lacked the expertise, which resulted in four shooters from our home team going on to shoot for very competitive programs,” she said.
