Record number of Pennsylvania schools to compete in state archery tournament
About 900 students from 53 Pennsylvania schools will compete Friday in a state archery tournament in Lancaster County.
“It’s actually a record for us for number of schools,” Todd Holmes, Pennsylvania Game Commission Shooting Sports Outreach Division chief, said in a telephone interview about the National Archery in the Schools Program (NASP) state tournament. “The program is still growing, and we’re excited to have more space,” he said.
For the last eight years, the event was held at Penn State's track and field area, but this year it has been moved to a place to hold more archers. The competition begins at 8:30 a.m. Friday at Spooky Nook Sports in Manheim, Lancaster County. It's the largest indoor facility in the United States for team tournaments, according to Holmes. The flights continue through Friday afternoon and are followed by an awards ceremony.
“Nobody shoots a bow and doesn’t smile and enjoy it. Shooting arrows is just fun, it doesn’t matter what age you are. That’s something everybody enjoys doing. There’s just something about watching the arrow fly that makes your day a little brighter," Holmes said. "People bond over it."
He has been coordinating the event since 2014, and this year has passed on the state coordinator title to Tyler Isenhart.
When Holmes became involved with the program about nine years ago, there were 99 schools in the state with an organized archery program; now there are more than 300.
“When we put 1,000 kids in one room, and we give out scholarships to 10 kids, trophies and plaques and they get fire truck escorts into their hometowns because they are the state champion archery team for their school, it’s a pretty big deal. A lot of communities have rallied around the sport of archery and the archery programs,” Holmes said.
The scholarship money can be used at any higher education institution. “If you want to go to a two-year culinary school or you want to be a diesel mechanic or you want to be a doctor, you can take that scholarship money you won at the state tournament and apply to any school that you like,” he said.
The top shooters will then compete at the NASP Eastern National being held May 11-13 at the Kentucky Fair and Expo Center in Louisville, Kentucky.
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Archery gear
The competitors, elementary through high school, all shoot the same model of Genesis compound bow. It has an adjustable draw weight between 12 and 20 pounds. It’s designed to have a constant draw weight that stays the same regardless of the archers draw (arm) length to create a level playing field for archers of different heights.
The bows don’t have sights or mechanical release aids.
“It’s not easy. What some of these kids are able to accomplish with (just their) fingers and no sights is incredible,” Holmes said. While they haven’t had a perfect score of 300, he said someone shot a 299 and a couple 298s. The archers are shooting from 10 meters and 15 meters to the paper targets.
Everyone can enjoy archery
Archery is a good team sport as well as an individual sport.
“It gives kids an opportunity who may not be the best athlete in high school, but you can still shoot a bow extremely well. It doesn’t matter how big or tall you are, you can still learn to shoot a bow. Some of our best archers are non-athletes in any other aspect,” Holmes said.
“Our participation numbers for males and females is 50% right down the middle, which you don’t get in any other sport,” he said.
Costs for archery in the schools
The state game commission provides grants to schools starting an archery program.
“We can help any school start the process,” he said. “If they are willing to teach archery to students in one grade level, we are going to give them a $2,000 grant to pay for their equipment costs, which is about two-thirds of the equipment total ($3,000).” The kit includes 12 bows, arrows, targets, and racks, quivers and maintenance kits.
He said the agency will send a certified trainer to the school to train the staff members. Follow the program on Facebook by searching for the PennNASP page.
Safety
Archery is fun, but it’s also safe, Holmes said. In all the safety studies about high school sports, only table tennis has a higher safety rating than archery programs, he said.
“The way the NASP program is taught and the way the instruction is given to the students, it’s extremely well put together. Everything from curriculum all the way down to the equipment has to be vetted thoroughly to provide the safest environment for the students as possible," he said.
Brian Whipkey is the outdoors columnist for USA TODAY Network sites in Pennsylvania. Contact him at bwhipkey@gannett.com and sign up for our weekly Go Outdoors PA newsletter email on this website's homepage under your login name. Follow him on Facebook @whipkeyoutdoors ,Twitter @whipkeyoutdoors and Instagram at whipkeyoutdoors.
This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: National Archery in the Schools Program NASP Pennsylvania Tournament
