Five miles southeast of Powell, the hills around the Heart Mountain Rod and Gun Club echo with voices calling for targets and the subsequent shotgun blasts to follow. The late August morning provided the perfect conditions for the 3rd Annual Compete with a Cop Tournament in support of the Powell Panther Clay Target Team.

The event featured seven squads composed of roughly 75 participants stemming from local law enforcement, youth affiliated with the team, their parents and sponsors.

Even Park County Sheriff Darrell Steward made an appearance as a volunteer triggerman for the clay target thrower.

“It’s a great time to come out and shoot with the kids, it’s an awesome competition,” Steward said. “It’s a good excuse to get me out of the house and out to enjoy the day as well.”

When all was said and done, Powell High School senior Austin Sears, son of assistant coach Randy Sears, took first place both as the highest overall shooter of the event as well as the highest scoring student shooter. For his prize, he was awarded two cases of 12 gauge ammunition, one case for each honor.

The First Duty

The tournament comes as the first major event for the team following a successful spring season. With only three teams in the state participating in the skeet shooting event, the tournament was canceled and winners were determinedd by aggregating total scores shot throughout the season.

In that breakdown, team member and son of the head coach, Callum Hubbard, took first place in overall shooting, with Austin Sears taking second place in boys' skeet shooting, freshman Charlee Muecke scored second place in girls' skeet shooting and eighth grader Marshall Neal received third place overall in the novice division.

Larry Akin is the founder of the shooting team after recognizing an opportunity to get more young people involved in extracurriculars, regardless if they are taught through the district, homeschooled, or through the private schools.

The idea came to him in late 2023 while observing publicity more mainstream high school athletics programs were receiving at the time.

“I saw that [Powell High School] had some pretty amazing high school teams over recent years where they were winning multiple state championships in baseball and competed in state for football and basketball, and I thought, there are other really good youths in our district who are equally as good as these others who need to be on a team,” Akin said. “There’s some kids who are in the background who have just as much talent or just need some exposure to a different type of team situation.”

The team is made up of students from as young as 12 all the way up to high school seniors. On top of that, there are academic and safety requirements for the youth to adhere to before they’re allowed to participate.

Despite developing a background coaching all of the sports the rec league offered while raising his six children, Akin realized that shooting was just a little bit outside of his wheelhouse. For that, he turned to Ben Hubbard to serve as head coach for the team.

“I’ve learned over the years that you get railroaded into things and Larry is just extremely gentle at it and definitely persuasive,” Hubbard joked.

To these two men, shooting is more than just going out and breaking clay pigeons at the range. They both concurred that shooting offers the youth who participate a sense of responsibility and a way to improve themselves.

“Marksmanship forces you into every single attribute of being a moral person. It forces you to acknowledge the truth, because you can’t fudge whether a target broke or not. It forces you to have self reflection and character, to do the right thing when nobody’s watching and it forces you to focus, just like we all have to do everyday as adults.” Hubbard said.

The team competes almost exclusively at the Heart Mountain Rod and Gun Club with the exception of when they travel to the state championship in Torrington in a van provided by local gym franchise, Club Dauntless.

When they battle any of the other 22 high school teams across the state, they do so digitally by performing at their home course and recording their scores digitally. The only team to visit Powell on their home turf is Basin’s team affiliated with Riverside High School.

Blasting Ahead

Although fall is usually a bit slower of a season due to scheduling conflicts with other sports like football and volleyball, the team usually picks up more members going into the spring, according to Hubbard. For the last three spring seasons, the number of participants usually floats around 17 to 20 students.

“If you were to ask me ‘is this going the way I thought it would have?’ I really didn’t think I’d have an idea as to what I thought it could turn into but it’s exceeding my expectations,” Akin said.

The Powell Panther Clay Target Team is a member of the USA Clay Target League, which, despite the club being required to have the high school’s blessing to both compete and utilize the Panthers name, the team is entirely funded by sponsors.

“Without funding from our sponsors, we couldn’t do any of this. Without them, we wouldn't be able to consistently get kids the shells and clays they need.” Akin said. “With the community, we have our youth go around and talk to the sponsors directly and I don’t think we’ve ever had any of them turned down by any of the businesses. I’m very pleased with the community’s support alongside the families and coaching support.”

For more information on the shooting team’s events and resources on becoming a sponsor, reach out to Larry at larry.david.akin@gmail.com or Ben at AllThingsProjectile@gmail.com.