Young hotshots

“The sport is growing,’’ said Chuck Swanberg of Wellesley, head coach of the Hot Shots. “We had more than 100 participating at the state championships this year, [compared with] 65 last year. It’s growing across the country.’’

Swanberg started the Hot Shots in 2007 with seven kids. Now there are 24 boys and girls ages 12 to 18.

“I first brought my son, Tyler, here five or six years ago, when he was about 12,’’ Swanberg recalled. “At first there were no other kids his age, then others became involved. I wanted to introduce him to a traditional American activity. I felt it was an activity being lost in America, and I wanted to pass that heritage on.’’

But in politically correct Massachusetts, do the other kids find this interest in guns, well, kind of odd?

“At first a lot were kind of shocked,’’ said Tyler Swanberg, 17, a two-time member of the state championship team who’ll be a senior at Wellesley High School in the fall. “A lot of them were opposed to this kind of thing. I had to do a lot of explaining.’’

Many of the kids, such as Tyler, were encouraged by a parent to get involved in shooting. Bennett Palmer, 18, of Medfield, who’s headed to the nationals for the first time this month, said he “always grew up with guns.

“My dad was a member here and he brought us,’’ Palmer said. “I liked it. I got good at it. It was a way to bond with my dad.’’

But others came without parental prodding. Alec Trub of Sherborn played baseball through his freshman year at Dover-Sherborn Regional High School before deciding it just wasn’t fun any more.

“In my sophomore year I wanted to get a gun license,’’ said Trub, 18. “This was a way to get involved in it. I liked t he idea of target shooting.’’