It came down to just two people: Powell Police Lt. Matt McCaslin and local teen Trey Erickson. The two competitors fired shot after shot and when the dust cleared on Aug. 24, the 17-year-old member of the Panther Clay Target Team was victorious.

Erickson and McCaslin were competing in the team’s first annual Compete with a Cop Fundraiser. Erickson was the highest scoring shooter overall while McCaslin was the highest scoring police officer out of five members of law enforcement.

The club is fundraising for a variety of things including money for ammunition, clay targets (a whopping 1,650 were fired during the competition) and jerseys.

The goal of the competition was to showcase the newly formed club, organizer Larry Akin said, but it was also a way to have local law enforcement interact with the student athletes.

“Together they had a lot of fun. They smiled and giggled and laughed and fist bumped, and they just really enjoyed being together,” Akin said. “I think it did nothing but good to let our young people, student athletes, know that, ‘hey our law enforcement, they’re good people, and they just want to help us if they can.’”

The club members enjoyed the event, McCaslin said, with many smiles and “a lot of great camaraderie with the kids.”

Some of the kids even gave pointers to McCaslin, who said the event made a positive impact on the youth in regards to their interaction with law enforcement. On the first day of school three days later, students he had not met prior to Compete with a Cop felt comfortable talking to him, even going as far as claiming they’d beat him at next year’s event. 

And while McCaslin was beaten by Erickson this year, the homeschool senior said, “he put up good competition.”

McCaslin was shooting a shotgun with an “improved” choke, which means the spread of his shot is wider. Erickson used one with a “full” choke, which narrowed his spread but allowed him to shoot farther — “[McCaslin] hit maybe four or five less than me,” Erickson said.

He has been shooting trap since 2021 when his little brother started the sport. They began with 4-H before joining the Powell Panther Clay Target Team, which started this year.

The newly minted nonprofit club is not sponsored or supported by Powell schools, but is a school-recognized club which allows them to use the Panther name and logo, Akin said. He added that a grant application to the Friends of the NRA is also in progress. 

Around $5,200 was raised from the Compete with a Cop event, with roughly $3,900 coming from a shotgun raffle and around $1,300 being raised from lunch tickets and other donations. 

The club captures a wide variety of students and for some it may be an alternative to traditional athletics. While Erickson does serve as a baseball umpire, he describes himself as not athletic, and better suited for sports like trap and skeet shooting. 

“I’ve never really been athletic … I've just never been an athletic person, but I do way better with shooting because it's something that requires calm more than a higher heart rate,” Erickson said. 

The club does provide a place for students who are not on traditional sports teams, but a lot of members are also student athletes who also like clay target shooting sports. While all students aren’t in the Powell school district, all members have to be in sixth-12th grade, academically eligible and meet safety requirements.

“Every one of the youth who has practiced with us thus far has been very appreciative, grateful, they're very respectful, they're very coachable, they support each other … they just have the camaraderie on the team,” Akin said.