Wisconsin Life

(acoustic music) -

Fritz

Pull! (gun fires) Fritz Thistle is at home on the range. -

Fritz

It's you against the target. One target at a time. Pull! (gun fires) Like a lot of sportsmen, Fritz has been shooting since he was a boy. I actually got started shooting when I was really, really young. Of course, learning to came later. As I tell my kids a lot of times, at my age, they all taught us how to hunt, but nobody ever taught us how to shoot. So I hunted really, really well. I mean, I could find the stuff, but I couldn't hit very much. (gun clicks) Still, Fritz kept at it. After high school, he joined the Navy with assignments in Scotland and the East Coast. Along the way, he was drawn to trapshooting. Gun sports that involve shooting a moving clay target... -

Fritz

Pull! (gun fires) Out of the sky. So I found a guy that I used to know in New Jersey. And he took me out to a local trap club, and I broke a three out of 25. And I said, "I can do this." I broke a five out of 25. Well, I found a Winchester gun club up there, and I started going there a little bit. And before I was out of school up there, Navy School, I ran my first 25 straight. So I knew I could do it. After he retired and moved home to Wisconsin, Fritz moonlighted at this conservation club near Sauk Prairie and honed his skills. In 1989, he decided to compete. I went to the Wisconsin State Shoot in Waukesha. And at that time, in fact they still do, they shoot 100 targets in the morning, 100 targets in the afternoon, total of 200 singles for the singles championship. Well, I broke in 97 in the morning out of 100 and 97 in the afternoon out of 100 for a 194. Well, that didn't win me anything, but that really got me hooked. And it wasn't long, I was winning stuff. In the early 2000s, the wins started stacking up. Pull! (gun fires) I won the all-around Wisconsin State Championship. I shot off in the singles, I shot off in the handicap. I ended up second in doubles, had them all together. I had the all-around in Wisconsin too. But if getting to the top was hard, staying there was about to get even harder. I was right at my peak, went to Iowa for the Iowa State Trap Shoot, and I was shooting a singles event with some friends of mine. Missed my last target out for a 99. And my good friend next to me, Doug Zerobic, looked at me and gave me the darnedest look and put his gun up and broke his hundredth target for his hundredth straight. Well, what they didn't know was that I'd been having a heck of a headache. And all the way through, it was getting worse and worse and worse. I went back to my camper, went down, and that's the last thing I remember for 10 days. I had a brain hemorrhage while I was shooting. And they flew me by helicopter down to the University of Iowa and saved my life. As he recovered,

support poured in from other trap shooters

cards, offers of help, even a temporary home for his dog. But there was a problem. When I came out of the hospital, paralyzed on my right side. No movement in my arm or my leg. And I lay in that hospital and I say, "Move you buggers." Looked at my toes, and one day, my toes moved. I called my wife and said, "I'm going to be alright." And he was going to shoot again. And I can stand at station one, miss all five left-hand targets. And that was so frustrating because I knew I could do it. And again, a good friend of mine said, "Well hold a little further off the house." Well, I wasn't thinking at the time, but I did. Started breaking targets again. And that set me off. Then a lot of hard work, and I was back. And that was in 2004. And I made the All-American team in 2007. And in 2013, I was inducted into the Wisconsin Hall of Fame. Today, Fritz is at the range for practice. Not for him, but for them. Pull! (gun fires) This is my first year. I've been shooting for three years now. I've been shooting for five years. I think this is my sixth year. Pull! (gun fires) For the past few years, Fritz has helped coach this team from the Sauk County Youth Trapshooting Association. I knew most of the kids, but I never got into coaching with them until Vic Waylin came, and he's heading up the coaching right now and said, "We need somebody to help teach the kids doubles." I can do that. Maybe I can't shoot them quite as well at my age, but I can sure remember how to do it and teach them. Like Fritz, these kids are champion shooters. Pull! (gun fires) They compete at youth tournaments in Wisconsin and beyond, winning titles and cash prizes. Pull! (gun fires) In Eau Claire, I got third place in rookie. We went to Rome on Sunday and I shot an 85. Went to Colorado two times so far and got silver in the doubles. As a coach, Fritz helps teach these shooters how to turn a solid clay pigeon into a ball of soot. (gun fires) One of the things I told them was you put one of these in your gun. (gun fires) There's a soot-ball in every one of them. And it's up to you to make it happen. And yet, Fritz says the lessons he teaches about trapshooting apply beyond the shooting range. (gun fires) They're lessons he's learned firsthand. You know, setting goals, accomplishing goals, readjusting your goals. That's everyday life stuff. And if you miss a target, you gotta forget it. You got another one coming up. And that takes all your attention, all your effort. Whether it's coming back from a brain hemorrhage or shooting trap, if you think you can do it, that's half the battle. Pull! (gun fires) (uplifting instrumental music)