Is trapshooting high school’s safest sport?

When compared to other high school sports, trapshooting is the safest sport for student athletes. Since the clay target league’s inception in 2001, there has been no reported injuries to any any participant during any scheduled practices or competition. That’s right, zero, since 2001.

National High School Sports-Related injury Surveillance Study

Participation in high school sports, one of the most popular physical activities among adolescents, has grown rapidly from an estimated 4.0 million participants in 1971-72 to an estimated 7.7 million in 2011-12.

Since the 2005-06 school year, R. Dawn Comstock, PhD of the Center for Injury Research and Policy at The Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio has conducted the National High School Sports-Related Injury Surveillance System. This system was developed to monitor injuries among US high school athletes participating in boys’ football, boys’ and girls’ soccer, girls’ volleyball, boys’ and girls’ basketball, boys’ wrestling, boys’ baseball, and girls’ softball. This surveillance has been conducted using the RIO (Reporting Information Online) surveillance system through the generous contributions of the Centers for Disease Control and the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS). Participant schools were randomly selected to obtain 100 study schools for the 2011-2012 school year.

High School Sports-Related Injury Surveillance Study, US, 2011-12 School Year

*Only includes injuries resulting in ≥1 days’ time loss.
**An athlete exposure was defined as one athlete participating in one practice or competition where he or she is exposed to the possibility of athletic injury.
***Injury rate per 1,000 athlete-exposures.

USA High School Clay Target League 2011-14 School Year