Chaffee County Times - Young Guns Takes First at State Competition
Full article can be found here:
The Young Guns, Buena Vista’s trap shooting team, took first place for Conference 2 at the Colorado State High School Clay Target League 2024 Fall Trap Shooting competition.
Trace Steed and Ty Munchoff took 1st and 3rd respectively in the male division, and Taya Martinez and Anna Arnold took 1st and 2nd in the male division. The team took first overall, beating out several larger teams.
“A lot of times, what people think is that bigger is better,” said head coach Jake Farber. “That’s not necessarily true. A lot of times, more individual attention spent on an individual is better.”
Schools with large teams like Fruit Monument or Brighton “crush things with numbers,” Farber said. “What we have to do is focus in, micro-focus on individuals and their individual efforts so that when we’re working with them, I can see that maybe you’re having an issue with this particular post, this particular array of targets. … That’s how we end up with the shooters at the very top of the game.”
Students excel with that individual attention, but Farber also attributes their success to the strong presence of their families and the support of travel coach Erik Philips.
“The moms and dads are typically there … at every practice,” he said. “You see that they invest in their students. … When you have the particular equipment you use the most and you’re the most familiar with it, you do better with that. That support group is a huge thing, and that’s what we have, what we can offer. That’s what we excel in.”
One of this year’s biggest learning experiences was getting to see and shoot at different venues, many much larger than the students may have seen before.
“There’s a term called ‘seeing the elephant,’” Farber said. “Once they’ve seen it, they understand that it’s not a big deal. It’s just another part of life.”
Farber expressed pride in his students' learning over the season.
“I tell my students, ‘I’m the worst coach. I don’t care if you win or lose, I care if you win,’” he said. “If you learn, you will win. … Two-and-half points isn’t two-and-a-half targets. That’s a tenth of a target. … I don’t care about 25, 50, 75, 100 targets. I care about one.
“I’m tickled with their progress, and I’m tickled with the way they handle that progress,” he said. “They act like they’ve been here before.”
Martinez placed last fall, as well, and Arnold is in her first year. Munchoff and Steed have both been with the team since middle school.