Derrick grew up on a small farm in southeast Kansas and developed a love of the outdoors at an early age tagging along with his dad while quail and deer hunting. Got started in sporting clays at age 8 joining his dad in a small league at a local club. With the help of his dad, he began to develop his skills as a competitive shooter. Has been competing as a member of the NSCA since 1995, winning 13 state championships and leading the USA Sporting Clays Team to multiple team world titles.

The shooting sports earned him a scholarship to Lindenwood University. While there, he was on dual scholarship for baseball and the shotgun team. After a couple years. he transferred to Kansas State University to pursue a degree in Animal Science, graduating in 2008. While at KSU, he won the ACUI Collegiate Clay Target Championship, a format that includes international trap, international skeet, American skeet, American trap, and sporting clays.

After graduating from college, he moved to Ohio where he designed and managed Cardinal Center Sporting Clays. Having successfully getting the facility up and going, he took the chance to move closer to home to manage Powder Creek Shooting Park. In 2013, he married Diana, in what he admits is the "best decision he has ever made." "She has become my rock, biggest supporter and motivator in pursuit of becoming a full-time coach and competitor in the shooting sports," he said. In May of 2016, the Mein family welcomed their daughter Rylie to the world.

During his years in the shooting sports, Mein has competed in many different disciplines, including sporting clays, skeet, trap, international trap, and helice, winning national titles and earning Team USA honors in helice, international trap, and sporting clays. He's a perennial NSCA All-American, a F.I.T.A.S.C. World Sporting Clays Champion, ICTSF World English Sporting Champion, World All Around Shotgun Champion, a NSCA National Champion, captain of the NSCA All-American Open Team, was an inaugural member of the Professional Sporting Clays Association and a 2020 Olympian in Men's Trap.

Article from USA Shooting