Jessica Strasser is 17, and last summer, earned a position on the CZ-USA shotgun team of five that broke the Guinness World Record for most clays shot in 12 hours. A National Honors Society student, Jessica shoots the disciplines of trap, skeet, sporting clays, international doubles in trap and bunker trap. She competes on her high school team – the Waterford Wolverines – in Wisconsin. While at the CZ World Record shoot, Jessica found a few spare minutes to talk with members of the press.
NRA Family: How long have you been shooting, and when did you start?
Jessica Strasser: I’ve been shooting for 5 years. I started out hunting with my dad and older brother, and shooting felt like a natural progression. I mainly hunted ducks, pheasants and Canada geese. Pheasant hunting is my favorite.
NRA Family: How did you get started in competition shooting?
Jessica Strasser: My older cousin and his friends started a shooting team at our high school. My brother joined, and so it seemed like “Why not give it a try?” When I started getting better, I knew I wanted to keep going.
NRA Family: What was it about shooting that you liked?
Jessica Strasser: All the coaches are parent volunteers and they kept saying, “Keep going. Keep trying.” That made me keep wanting to do it. When I started breaking more targets, it was like ‘Wow! I am getting better!’
NRA Family: What other sports have you done, and why did you choose shooting?
Jessica Strasser: I did softball, volleyball and basketball and I did dance for 10 years. I liked them all, but I never got to be very good at it. In shooting, all the people make you want to be good at it. Not that there aren’t good people in other sports; it’s just the whole dynamic. Pushing yourself every week to be better is something I really like about it, while at the same time, the whole team aspect.
NRA Family: Have you noticed any crossover – emotional or academic – that you could say, “The shooting sports have made me better in [fill in the blank]?”
Jessica Strasser: I have always been a good student, but I didn’t start caring about it until I got into shooting. I never really wanted to be a good student. Shooting has really made me want to do better in all aspects of my life. My 8th grade year, when I went to Nationals in SCTP … that was the first time a coach from a college called me. I never put too much thought in it before then. I went on a couple of campus tours and shot with their teams, and the coaches said to pay attention to my grades in school. That’s carried over for me.
NRA Family: What do you do outside of the shooting world?
Jessica Strasser: I volunteer time to the church and to our local VFW post.
NRA Family: We expect great things from Jessica in the years to come...keep an eye on this rising shooting star!
