I’m spending some time watching the Fort LeBoeuf High School Trap Shooting Team. It's won conference championships. It's won state championships. You know what they want next. This team wants a national championship.

We’re at the Erie County Sportsmen's League shooting range for the team’s last practice before heading to Michigan to try to win that first national crown. Fort LeBoeuf is a powerhouse team. The Bisons are the current Pennsylvania state champs. They also were state champions in 2022 and 2023.

"We've kind of got a little bit of pride after going back year after year and doing pretty good and winning three out of the four years,” says Larry Hanas, a longtime member of the team.

Fort LeBoeuf has done well at nationals in the past. It placed third nationally in 2023 and seventh in 2024. The athletes at fort LeBoeuf are so good that the school qualified to send two squads to compete for the team title at nationals. At Fort LeBoeuf, this could be THE year.

"Great, great, great possibility that we can definitely win nationals. We've already won so many states. Three times our of four years we've won. Out team is remarkable and they can really do a good job. I have high hopes for us in nationals,” says Landon Corwin, another veteran member of the team.

The student athletes are not the only people who have high hopes for a national championship in 2025. Coach Steve Shallenberger has confidence in this year’s squad.

"I feel they thrive in pressure. Practice is more fun to them. They kind of goof off a little more. They have fun with it. But when the pressure hits is when they shine,” he says.

There are 56 kids on this team. When the school first started a trap team in 2016, there were only 20. Coach Shallenberger says trap shooting is the fastest growing high school sport in America. He says you don't need to be strong or fast. Just be mentally focused and be diligent in your practice sessions. There's no men's team or women's team in this sport. All teams are co-ed.

"Honestly, I got two females on the two squads going, and I'd put them up against any guy out there,” says the coach.

Avery Harter is one of the females making the trip to nationals.

"If you're good at shooting you're good," she says. "There's no in between. Like the guys can't say that you aren't on the same level as all the guys,” she says.

Many of these students joined the team when they were in the sixth or seventh grade. That's a lot of experience and thousands of rounds fired at little clay discs. Everything leading up to the 2025 National Championships.

The national championship competition began Friday, July 11 and concludes the following Sunday. 260 teams will be participating.  Also, 1,800 athletes will be competing to be the individual champion. Six other teams from Northwest Pennsylvania will be attending nationals including Cambridge Springs, Conneaut Area, Cranberry, Maplewood, North East, and Saegertown.