Trap has historic day at state

Isaac Raatz first among JV shooters

Isaac Raatz is one cool dude.

Not in a man-bun-wearing, trendy hipster sort of way; after all, he prefers a nice pair of jorts to skinny jeans. Raatz is cool in that calm, collected and focused kind of way.

Raatz, a sophomore at Colby High, had the ice flowing in his veins during a hot and windy day at the WTA Shooting Complex in Rome, Wisconsin. He was one of nine Colby students to attend the Wisconsin State High School Clay Target League state tournament on Saturday.

And while many shooters struggled in the high winds that gusted and blew the clay targets every which way on Saturday afternoon, Raatz simply shrugged and kept on breaking targets.

“Well, personally, I feel like I almost shoot better on windy days, so I enjoyed it,” Raatz said about the challenging conditions. “I think the thing was just to stay calm and not get nervous if you missed a target.” Raatz did very little missing. By the time he was finished with his two rounds he had blown 93 out of 100 targets into tiny bits and pieces. Raatz shot 24 and 22 in his first round, and followed that up with 23 and 24 in round two.

That score is remarkable, considering the young man only took up the sport this year. By his own admission, Raatz said he struggled at the start. Basic things like proper stance and how to hold the shotgun were works in progress - and led to several bruises and one black eye.

“I went into the year not shooting the greatest, and I just worked on turning that around through the year.”

Raatz went head to head with 167 shooters in the JV division on Saturday, and by the time the dust and smoke of thousands of spent shells cleared, Raatz had done something extraordinary.

He finished as state champion.

“It feels really good,” Raatz says almost sheepishly, as if embarrassed by his accomplishment. “I’m still trying to let it sit and hit me. It’s hard to believe it, but this medal is definitely real.”

The trap team left before Raatz could even collect the medal on Saturday, with Colby deciding to ditch the summer heat and head back up north. But after hearing how his student did, first year head coach Dan Hederer made a two hour round trip to Wisconsin Rapids to pick up the well-deserved hardware.

Raatz’ big day was just one of several story-lines for the Colby trap shooting team, now in its third full year after COVID- 19 put a full stop to last season.

“I think we definitely upped the bar,” Hederer said. “All the kids went to state and performed great - they all shot their average or better.

“Isaac Raatz shot phenomenal the whole day. The wind was a big struggle - the wind was 20-25 miles per hour and blowing right in your face. The birds were climbing, so just to hit them was very hard to do.”

Grady Steinman turned in a career day. Steinman had his best ever first round, tracking down 49 of 50 targets, including a perfect 25 out of 25 at one point. It was the talented sophomore’s first ever 25.

Steinman shot a 42 out of 50 in round two as he led Colby’s varsity with a final score of 91 out of 100 to finish in 36th place out of the 203 varsity shooters present in Rome for the state tournament.

Brekyn Lieders began his day with a 40 out of 50, but faltered slightly in the second round, shooting 36 of 50 to score a 76 and placed 173rd. Braxton Meyer fared better, scoring 78 out of 100 after hitting 40 of 50 targets in round one and 37 of 50 in round two to place 161st.

Raatz’s fellow JV shooters were equally up to the task. Jacob Hoppe blasted 80 out of 100 targets as he placed 41st out of 167, and Braydon Boyer was 118th with 69 broken targets. Tucker Hayes knocked down 66 targets to finish 133rd.

Tyler Timmers represented Colby in the Novice Male category, and Timmers hit 66 out of 100 to finish 21st out of 78. Alana Brill had the second best finish out of any Colby shooter after she took ninth in the Novice Female division taking down 68 targets. Brill’s 39 in round one was a new persobal best.

The scores were incredible, Hederer said, even if he wasn’t around to see all of it happen.

“I couldn’t even watch part of it because they were doing so well and it made me more nervous than them,” Hederer said with a grin. “They handled the nerves ten times better than I did. Nerves didn’t seem to bother the kids at all. They were jumping around and having a good time and having a fun time to shoot.”

As a result of their scores, Colby’s varsity finished 23rd out of the 41 teams in attendance. It’s a great result, but one worth building on, says Hederer.

“Hopefully all the kids enjoyed themselves. They got a chance to see what it’s all about, and they shot well. I told them that I expect each and every one of them to be shooting again next year.”