“The great competitive sport”: Hundreds of students test their archery skills at a tournament in Utah
Estimated reading time: 3-4 minutes
OGDEN – More than 800 students from dozens of Utah schools competed in the National Archery in School Program's annual state tournament over the past three days.
Students in grades 4-12 compete for $6,500 in scholarships.
“Archery is great because it's a sport where you can compete with yourself,” said Dan Hill, an art teacher at Rocky Mountain Middle School in Heber City who also serves as the school's archery coach.
Hill, who practiced archery as a hobby in his youth, described Friday how satisfying it was to see the children he trained go from completely missing the target to becoming skilled archers at a remarkably young age.
“We now have a class of 50 kids at our school participating in the archery program,” Hill said. “These kids range from very athletic kids to kids who are not athletic at all, and they're not even able to hit the target, all the way down to concentrating on the yellow (the center of the target) when they hit the target Reach the target.” Tournament at the end of the year.
Each participant at Weber County Archery Park takes turns testing their bow and arrow skills by firing a quiver of arrows at a target from 10 meters away and from 15 meters away. The competition took place from Thursday to Saturday.
Hill said archery is unique in that it is a sport that is accessible to everyone, regardless of athletic ability.
Students take aim at their targets during Friday's tournament at Weber County Archery Park in Ogden. (Photo: Sky Mundell, KSL.com)
“I think sports builds confidence and gives them another reason to go to school when some of the kids struggle with that,” Hill said. “Parents have told me that the archery program is the only reason their child goes to school.”
According to Levi Bassett, shooting sports manager for the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, the National Archery in Schools program is a great motivator for students to do well in school. Teachers at participating schools can set parameters for grade point averages and attendance records that students must meet in order to participate in the program and qualify to compete in their local tournament at the end of the year.
Bassett said the implementation of the National Archery in Schools program in Utah schools has been increasingly successful over the years. 165 schools participated in the program, with approximately 30% of these schools participating in the annual National Archery in Schools State Tournament.
“The reason we like this program so much is because we call archery the great equalizing sport because it doesn't matter how tall you are, how fast you are, how much money your parents have or whether you're from a wealthy background School district is not coming,” Bassett said. “The children shoot exactly the same bows and arrows from fourth to twelfth grade.”
In addition to its accessibility, both Bassett and Hill said the sport teaches students discipline and gives students who may not be athletically inclined the opportunity to participate in a sport and reap the sense of achievement that comes with such experiences.
“It's really fun and unique, not like other sports like soccer, football or baseball,” said 13-year-old Anna Hawkins, a Rocky Mountain Middle School student who has participated in the archery program for two years.
Anna explained how she enjoys playing sports with her friends and making memories with them where everyone has fun doing something to improve their skills in a sport. She says archery is for everyone and all kids out there should try it if it's offered to them in their school.
“If you look at people and say you'll never be as good as them, you should just try this sport and practice,” Anna said. “You never know, you might get really good at archery when you don’t expect it – you just have to keep practicing and doing what you love.”
For tournament results click here.
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Sky Mundell is an intern at KSL.com. He is currently completing a bachelor's degree in multimedia journalism at Weber State University with a minor in political science. He worked as an assistant news editor at The Signpost, the university's student newspaper.
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