There wasn’t exactly a void when it came to Aidan McKinney’s sports endeavors.
 
As the Rock Creek sophomore says, “I did the whole shebang. Started out with soccer and wrestling, then football, baseball. I played all the sports. About every single thing.”
 
McKinney’s willingness to try new things has led him to a sport he never imagined he would embrace. It also led McKinney to heights he also never could have imagined.
 
In July, McKinney became a national champion. But not in one of the school’s “traditional” sports.
 
Instead, McKinney’s accomplishments came for Rock Creek’s Trap Shooting Team – a club sport that began six years ago and has grown into one that boasts more than 40 members ranging from seventh through 12^th grades.
 
“We had a student up here that wanted to shoot, so he went before the school board,” said Scott Prockish, assistant coach for the trap shooting team. “A couple other parents got interested for it to be something else that kids that don’t do football or baseball or basketball could do. Although a majority of our kids that are shooting do all sports. But it’s pretty flexible so they can do it all.”
 
Count McKinney – this week's Capitol Federal True Blue® Student of the Week – among the latter group. His schedule was already pretty full when close friend Hunter Prockish, Scott’s son, approached him about trying out trap shooting.
 
“He started in sixth grade and he was telling me all about it,” McKinney said. “I thought, ‘Oh, that sounds pretty cool.’”
 
McKinney didn’t exactly have an extensive background in hunting, though he’d been a couple times. He’d also occasionally gone with his father, Ross, to shoot a pistol at the range.
 
But shooting targets with a shotgun? Well, it was something new and exciting. So he jumped at the chance to join the team when he was 12.
 
“It sounded fun,” McKinney said. “I started in sixth grade and ever since then I just love it.”
 
After going through the mandatory safety courses and getting properly trained on a shotgun, McKinney began his journey to becoming a national champion in the sport. Not that success came quickly.
 
“I think I only hit 11 (of 25 targets) my first time,” McKinney said. “Hunter told me he did the same thing when he first started. It was a struggle but then you just get better and better. (The Prockishes) bought a thrower at their house and we’d go down about once a week and shoot.”
 
Scott Prockish had an inkling that McKinney would take to the sport when he and Hunter first approached him about giving it a try. And he hasn’t been the least bit surprised by the success McKinney has had recently.
 
“Absolutely I thought he’d be somebody that would shoot and shoot well,” Prockish said. “The thing about Aidan is he’s got talent, he’s got a great attitude and he’s humble. It’s a great combination for a shooter. And he’s got a great work ethic. He’ll put in extra time and go to all the meets he can.”
 
After the early adjustment period, McKinney poured himself into the sport. He switched from a single-bead sight to a double-bead sight on his shotgun and has seen his results take off. He started hitting 21 or 22 out of 25 targets on a routine basis  and made Rock Creek’s top five as an eighth-grader.
 
Then last fall during his freshman season, McKinney finally hit the mark that every shooter covets, a perfect 25 out of 25.
 
“It was a lot of nerves,” McKinney said of reaching perfection. “You get past the first five, then 10, then 15 and then 20 and you start thinking, ‘I haven’t missed any.’ You have to stay calm, but you get to that last five and you start shaking and get sweaty. You just put it in your mind to stay focused. I try to be as calm as possible because the more you freak out, the worse it can get. It’s just deep breaths, don’t worry about it and shoot like you know how to shoot.”
 
That breakthrough day has now become the norm for McKinney.
 
Following the spring 2022 trap season, McKinney teamed with Prockish, Seth Figge, Will Loquet and Hayden Thomason to finish second in the team standings at the Kansas High School Clay Target League state championship. The quintent hit 484 of 500 targets to finish runner-up to Chaparral by just three targets in the Class 2A division.
 
That qualified the team for the USA Clay Target League National Championships, which were held in July in Mason, Mich. After finishing 13^th at nationals in 2021, Rock Creek finished fifth out of 230 schools at nationals this summer, hitting a combined 969 out of 1,000 targets. Prockish led the way with a 199 of 200, while Figge hit 197 of 200, McKinney 195 of 200, Thomason 191 of 200 and Loquet 187 of 200.
 
“It was all about team,” McKinney said. “Last year, we got 13^th so this year it was trying to get those numbers up for the team. I was really there just to help my teammates out.”
 
But once it got to the individual competition, McKinney focused on himself. And after helping the team hit its best nationals finish ever, McKinney said he was merely having fun.
 
That free and easy feeling translated into the best shooting outing of his career. On the first day, McKinney hit 99 of 100 targets – which left him tied for 13^th. In the second round, he was perfect, going 100 for 100 to claim the national championship against a field of 1,716 shooters representing 408 schools from 27 states.
 
“Shooting 100, it’s like ‘Oh man,’” McKinney said. “It was a huge sigh of relief and I finally got settled down and wasn’t shaking so much. It hit 25 and then it was let’s get the next 25. I just kept going and got it done.”
 

 
McKinney and Prockish also competed in the World Championships in Sparta, Ill., in early August. Competing in the Sub-Junior (15-under) Handicap Division, McKinney was eligible to shoot, but in order to qualify for awards he had to take a 25-target penalty since he hadn’t hit the required number of handicap targets shot in his career.
 
If not for the penalty, McKinney would have won the World Championship as well.
 
McKinney plans to carry the momentum from the summer over into the fall season, which runs from September to October. After playing football last year, he’s not going out this fall. He still plans to wrestle – he was on varsity at 138 pounds last year as a freshman – and play baseball, where he is an infielder-outfielder.
 
McKinney also is involved in Rock Creek’s Future Farmers of America club.
 
McKinney likened shooting trap to wrestling.
 
“You’re out there by yourself and it’s just the same talk in your head,” he said. “You have to believe in yourself that you can do it and one day you flip the switch and you’re there.”
 
McKinney, Figge, Prockish, Thomason and Joe Redetzke all were named to the USA Clay Target League Kansas All-State team, which honors the top 100 shooters in the state out of 2,116 overall. Only Thomason will graduate off last year’s top five, giving the Mustangs a strong returning group for this season.
 
“They’re a pretty tight group,” Prockish said. “It’s very fortunate to have the group we have. They’re there for each other, they call each other out when they need to be called out.
 
“The thing that’s cool about it, you have seventh graders competing against seniors. It’s just across the board. If you can shoot, you can shoot. We never looked at it by grade. If you’re a good shooter and what your scores are, that’s where we’re going to put you.”
 
Now a veteran despite being only a sophomore, McKinney is taking on a leadership role with the team as well.
 
“Being an eighth grader on the starting top five was a lot of fun but a little nerve-wracking,” he said. “But the older guys were great leaders and really welcomed me. I try to do that now with the young guys. … I’m really interested to see how the young ones come up and shoot, but we should be a really good team this year and it should be a lot of fun.”
 
And McKinney isn’t about to rest on his recent run of success.
 
“I just keep telling myself every time I go out there, ‘Keep going forward,’” he said. “I won a national championship, but I’ve got to keep pushing. I love doing this.”