RICHARDSON NAMED AIM ALL STATE

Booneville High School sophomore Caleb Richardson was named AIM (Academics Integrity Marksmanship) All State trapshooting team for 2024. Only five were selected in Richardson’s division.

AIM is the official youth program of the Amateur Trapshooting Association and Richardson shoots as a sub-junior, which is any shooter under 15.

Richardson, who is a top shooter for the Bearcat trap shooting team, earned the award by competing in at least on monthly AIM event, the AIM state championship and zone championship shoots and having 500 registered singles – targets.

Richardson actually registered 1,000 singles, hitting 903 of them.

During the state shoot, Richardson scored well enough to earn an ATA lifetime membership card, saving about $600 in annual fees he will never have to pay.

Richardson said he has competed in events in Bella Vista, Jacksonville, Texarkana, and Fort Smith as well as other is Missouri and Oklahoma to meet the qualification.

Usually, Richardson said it is a family affair, including Mom Deanna, his brother, and twin sisters.

“Make a weekend out of it. Sometimes Lance will go,” said Richardson.

Lance is Lance Brown, one of Richardson’s coaches on the Bearcat trap team.

Another of Richardson’s coaches is Barry Bradford, who is his stepfather and who Richardson credits with introducing him to the sport.

“He’s the one who got me into shooting shotguns,” said Richardson. “I started in 4H shooting .22 and the air pistol and I kind of did all three but the shotgun has stuck since the school has it.”

Richardson also plays football but because most events are weekends working around practice is typically not difficult.

“Most of the time it’s pretty dead, but for the ATA, when I won my card, that was during summer but Coach Crowley was nice enough to let me go,” said Richardson.

The shooting discipline for AIM is different than what Richardson shoots for the Bearcat trap team, where he was on the top squad.

“In trap you have one house that’s got one machine that throws the bird everywhere,” Richardson explains. “Sporting clays there’s two machines they throw the bird wherever.

“There could be a super high bird that goes up, there could be a rabbit going across the ground or there could be a screamer that just goes straight across, so it’s more like a hunting aspect to it.”

Richardson has been competing on the Bearcat trap team since becoming eligible in the sixth grade, but it goes deeper than that.

“Caleb had been coming to our trap practices since before he was actually eligible to shoot with us,” said trap coach Thresa Brown.

Thresa Brown said she is happy that Richardson earned the award and that he is shooting regularly.

“This year we are trying to encourage our trap team members to go to extra shoots to become used to the feel of competition by paying their registration fees,” she said. “Caleb is the only one that has taken us up on it.”

Bradford agrees that Richardson got serious about the sport this year and it is a sport in which he can shoot year round.

The All State award is not Richardson’s first state level award. He was on the Bearcat state title skeet shooting team in 2021.

He had the highest overall average, highest male average, first in conference and was third overall in the state in the discipline that year.