Butler Community College Introduces First Season of Sports Shooting

Written by: Caleb Sanderson

Butler Community College’s new shooting sports team has begun its first season with competitions starting mid-September. Coach Darren Jackson is training four experienced shooters who will compete in two nationally-recognized leagues. 

The team is participating in two leagues with different competition schedules, the USA Clay Target League and the Scholastic Clay Target Program (SCTP) to give students more opportunities to compete. Shooters will compete using a shotgun individually and as a team against other two-year and four-year institutions in three different disciplines; trap, skeet and sporting clays. 

“My hope for this season is to grow in some of the basics that I have,” Freshman Kylee Nichols of El Dorado said. “I want to grow in skeet, for sure, and see how good I can get on this whole new level of the sport.” Nichols is excited to get to know her fellow team members and to travel to competitions. She is new to skeet shooting and hopes Coach Jackson will help her advance her skills. 

Butler’s sports shooters will rotate between three field locations to acclimate students to different environments. Students currently train in Augusta at Michael Murphy & Sons and at Sportsman's Training Center (STC). The third location is a rural area located near El Dorado, equipped with a sports shooting machine purchased by the college.  

As a newly formed sporting activity, the team is not yet at capacity, but with the number of interested students who have contacted Jackson, he will fill all 15 available slots after this first season.  

“With the people who have reached out to me, I can see next year having a full squad and being very competitive,” Jackson, who coached sports shooting at Bluestem High School for nine years, expressed. “The kids reaching out are great shooters and I feel good about the future.” 

Team members are offered a stipend to mitigate the cost of shells they are responsible for during competitions and practices. 

Butler’s team is one of only three Kansas colleges that deem the activity a sport, as opposed to a club organization. Students on the team must be between 18 and 26 years old, have experience with gun handling and safety, and attend Butler on a full-time basis with good academic standing.  

“I think we can compete for a national championship with the quality of shooters we have and that are coming. One student who wants to commit to Butler placed at nationals in high school. I think we’ll have a full team next year and a better chance to qualify,” Jackson said.