DECATUR — Fifteen Decatur students traveled to Lonoke to participate in the West Regional Arkansas Youth Shooting Sports Tournament on April 1 and May 30.

Although Decatur’s three teams - two senior high and one junior high - didn’t place in the trap shooting tournament, several students achieved their personal best scores at the competition, according to coach Lisa Barrett.

John Keith, Brady Graves, Jamie Burden, Evan Owens, Joey Barnes and Lacy Barrett all scored their personal best, she said.

“They did good for a first year. I’m really proud of them. The kids figured out what a match is like; we had never been to one before. We learned a lot,” Barrett said.

Trap shooting is not yet a school sanctioned sport at the Decatur High School. The students formed a community team to compete this season with the hope thatwhen a school board is put in place next fall they will vote to make trap shooting an official sport.

Barrett said the team will continue to meet once or twice a month to keep up with their skills until official practice begins on Feb 1. The team didn’t get to begin practice until March this year because of the weather and it took some time to get the proper equipment, but next year the team should be set up and ready to shoot, she said.

Sports, Pages 9 on 05/05/2010