It was a Wednesday, it was far too early in the morning, and I was a day late and a dollar short as usual. I was coming to this interview on the spur of the moment after having played phone tag with the club president. I had only maybe a half hour before my next class.
I walked into the Club Fair in the SUB and saw a couple associates of mine from the paper. After getting the down-low from them about this maelstrom of a fair I had walked into, I found the booth I wanted. Larkin Henkel, the president of NIC’s new shotgun club Breaking Clays, sat at a booth behind me. She wore a sweatshirt and jeans and had a couple flyers about the club lying on the table.
After the introductions got out of the way, Henkel laid out the club’s story.
NIC has a gun club? Yes, you heard right. NIC is now the proud home of Breaking Clays, a student shotgun club through the Scholastic Clay Target Program which offers training and reduced prices on ammunition and clays.
President Henkel works at the Coeur d’Alene Skeet and Trap Club in Hayden, where the club practices. Shooting coaches are available to give instruction in all disciplines of shooting, including trap, skeet, and five stand.
There will be a tri-state tournament this November; college and high school clubs from Idaho, Montana, and Washington will be competing for club endowment money and a $1500 endowment for all participating clubs.
With the creation of this club, NIC is now able to compete in a whole different arena of extracurricular activity, giving students another way to get some scholarship money. You don’t even need to own a shotgun; there are guns available at the range, but members are still free to bring their own guns.
“If you shoot, and if you’re good at it, then you can get a really good scholarship to a four-year school,” Henkel said. “I know a lot of girls that got…full ride scholarships just because they’re a pretty good shot.”
Henkel, founder of Breaking Clays, also founded the first student shotgun club in Idaho at Lake City High School.
There is a $15 fee to register through the Scholastic Clay Target Program to become a member of Breaking Clays. The club has flyers up around campus with contact information for the shooting coaches and Henkel.
