On Friday night, Zane Backous could be found on the baseball diamond helping lead the Aberdeen Smittys to victory. About 12 hours later he was at the Aberdeen Gun Club competing in the South Dakota High School Clay Target State Tournament.

And today?

Backous will be back in a Smittys uniform for a doubleheader in Mitchell.

“It’s not that tough doing things that I love. It’s not hard to do things that you’re happy doing and you like to do,” Backous said. “It would be a little different if I was going from work to baseball, and then back to work or something, but I’m going from two things that I really like to do, so just having fun doing it.”

Backous enjoys competing in both sports and said that there is one main component involved in both.

“They’re both very mental. Baseball is a 75 percent mental sport and trapshooting is even more mental,” Backous said. “Every time you go out there you have the ability to break a clay or hit a pitch, but most of the time it’s almost always in your head.”

Backous said when he is involved in one sport, he does not think about the other.

When asked what his Smittys teammates thought about him shooting, Backous said he had to take a ribbing after finishing behind a pair of sharp-shooting gals at last year’s state tournament.

“Last year I got made fun of because I took third and I lost to two girls,” Backous said. “I told them that last year and I didn’t hear the end of that one. When they shoot a 99 and a 100 out of 100, it’s pretty tough to beat them.”

While this will prove to be a busy weekend with baseball, clay target and then more baseball, at least Backous didn’t have both events scheduled for the same day.

What would he have done if that were the case?

“Ohhh,” Backous said, thinking of the possibility. “I don’t know. I would have had a really tough decision to make.”

ABERDEEN GIRL MEMBER OF REDFIELD SQUAD

There are 58 teams competing in this year’s state tournament and some feature a blend of shooters from other schools.

Allison Neitzel, who will be a sophomore at Aberdeen Central this fall, is competing for the Redfield trap team.

The only girl shooter on the team, Neitzel said she feels she has fit right in.

“The farm is in Redfield, so I’m there all the time,” Neitzel said. “The one guy is from Ipswich so he kind of didn’t know anybody, either, so we all just kind of fit in.”

Neitzel, who also competes in BMX in Aberdeen, has one sport that she enjoys more than the others.

“I like wrestling the most probably,” she said. “It’s a lot more physical than trap, definitely.”

While each of the sports have a physical component, the proper mindset is a key element in shooting, according Neitzel.

“Everytime I miss I kind of think, ‘Oh shoot,’ but then I try to focus on the next one instead of thinking about it,” Neitzel said.

That task is easier said than done.

“It is hard,” Neitzel said, “especially if you know you’re under them or in the wrong spot, just trying to get your brain to make you think about where you need to go.”

FORMER ABERDONIAN HELPS START MADISON TEAM

Trevor Harms is back in the Hub City this weekend for the Clay Target State Tournament. Harms, who moved from Aberdeen to Madison three years ago, was instrumental in helping to start trapshooting at his new school.

He and a friend were brainstorming in class one day and came up with the idea of adding the sport at the school.

“We realized that we could start a trap team,” Harms said, “and then we actually did it.”

Of course, there were a few hurdles to clear first.

“We went to a board meeting and explained what we would do,” Harms said.

As a result, the Bulldogs now have a team and are competing in their first state tourney this weekend.

“Goals for the first year were just to have fun, figure out how it all works,” Harms said. “There’s a lot of learning curve to it. Just have fun; that’s what it’s all about.”

Harms is having fun, because for starters, he likes to shoot things.

“I guess I just enjoy shooting sports,” he said. “They’re fun, engaging. I’ve always wanted to shoot things.”

Not only that, but this weekend he has a chance to reconnect with a few people that he knows from his days in Aberdeen.

“It’s kind of like home away home, I guess. It’s like the old stomping grounds,” Harms said. “I’m able to catch up with some people from around here.”

WIND DOESN’T IMPACT WARNER SHOOTER

Saturday’s conditions were much different than what the area experienced throughout the week. While the warm weather broke, shooters had to deal with blustery winds. That did not have much of an affect on Warner’s Landon Jensen, though.

“If you shoot fast, the wind doesn’t have a chance to mess with it too much,” said the recent graduate, who is bound for Lake Area in the fall.

“I shoot fast all the time,” he said.

Not only that, but Jensen is not a big fan of shooting when it’s hot.

“Cooler is better. The heat messes with me more than wind,” Jensen said. “I get lazy when it’s hot.”

Jensen has been shooting trap for eight years. While he has nailed 50 straight targets at a time before, he said he enjoys spending time shooting with his buddies more than he focuses on scores.

Jensen helped lead the Warner football team to the state championship game last fall as a starting lineman. He said there is a noticeable difference between playing in the finals in football and shooting trap in a state tournament.

“This seems a lot more relaxed, not near as much tension, which is good,” Jensen said of the clay target tourney. “Shooting tense you never end up doing very good.”

The tournament concludes today.