Officer guide
How to run a trap league
A practical sequence for a weekly club league — format first, software second. You can run all of this on paper. The pad is optional.
1. Decide the shape before you buy anything
- Team or individual? Five-person trap teams with subs is common. Individual + handicap is common too. Don’t mix the story mid-season.
- Weeks. 8, 10, 12, or 16. Name the makeup / drop-low rule up front.
- Handicap. Yardage, percent-of-average, or a house formula. Write it down. Officers lose trust when the formula lives in one head.
- Lewis class / beer birds / prize birds. Fun money is fine. Keep it off the official standing if that is your club’s culture — or turn the label on and count it on weekly results.
2. Names, duty, and the desk
The night fails on people, not math. Who is on each team. Who is working the trap. Who can write a score if the regular scorer is late. Who takes the money.
Paper can do this. A shared spreadsheet can do this until two people edit it. Night Desk is the product name for fees, freeze, and a duty scorer for that week only.
3. Score the night, then publish the board
Print a trap score sheet if that is how you start. Or mark birds on a trap league pad. Either way: lock the week when the squad is done, and put standings where members can open them on a phone.
If you try software, run one week next to Excel before you abandon the book. Tour uses sample data — don’t type real member names there.
What this is not
- Not a full accounting suite or QuickBooks replacement
- Not certified ATA/NSSA/NSCA electronic filing (yet)
- Not a native app-store download — web app that works on phone/tablet (installable as a PWA)
- Not a personal hit/miss scorecard for one shooter in the field
See it the way officers use it
The live Tour is the same product shape — scorepads, standings, and Night Desk. Sample data only. Don’t put real member names in the Tour.