National Archery In The Schools Program Changing Lives One Arrow At A Time.
Orlando, Florida –-(Ammoland.com)- At 6:00PM on Thursday, October 9th, a shrill, whistled “TWEET” rang out throughout ESPN’s Wide World of Sports Complex near Orlando, Florida.
Thus began three magical days, near Disney World as 1,243 student archers launched nearly 50,000 arrows towards downrange bulls-eyes.
Last week, student archers from twenty-four States, Canada, Namibia, and South Africa gathered at ESPN’s Wide World of Sports Complex in Orlando, Florida. These archers had qualified during their respective national tournaments to compete at the 2012 NASP World Invitational Tournament.
This was the National Archery in the Schools Program’s fourth consecutive world archery contest conducted at this complex within Disney World. The trip to Orlando culminated a scholastic archery season that began in January with team try-outs and moved through 40 state and several national tournaments. For example, 7,804 students competed in the US National NASP Tournament held in Louisville, Kentucky on May 10-11th.
Each of the archery teams was comprised of 12-24 students. As required, every NASP team contained both boys and girls. In fact, 42% of the participants were female.
Teams competed in NASP’s Elementary, Middle, or High School Divisions. Grade 6 was the most represented with 115 girls and 149 boys. Among 8th and 12th grade students, girls were the most numerous with 95 girls and 93 boys. When asked, 88-94% of students reported that they love NASP archery! As Meagan Comer from Chickahominy Middle School in Virginia put it, “I love archery because it gives me confidence in what I do and lets me express myself.”
This world tournament followed the same format and protocols that more than 2 million NASP students practiced throughout the 2011-12 school year. Each student used the same Mathews Genesis bow and Easton aluminum arrows. The bows were bare because sights, stabilizers and other aids so common in other forms of archery, are absent in NASP. Every student, regardless of their grade-level or experience shot 5 practice and 15 scored arrows at 80 centimeter Morrell targets from both 10 and 15 meters. A perfect score is 300 (30 bulls-eyes).
Team scores are established by summing the top 12 scores among the team?s archers. Both genders must be represented in the team score. Most students find archery moderately difficult — not so hard they can?t succeed and not so easy that it isn’t a challenge. Or, according to Allison Greenday from Atlee High School notes, “Archery is a sport that doesn’t discriminate according to height, gender, weight or anything….archery has become a part of me :)!” Before the awards ceremony could commence ties among 10 archers were broken.
Ties are resolved by each archer shooting 5 practice arrows and 5 arrows for score at 15 meters. The NASP world record score of 298/300 was equaled by Cameron Peyton, a Freshman representing Anderson County High School in Lawrenceburg, Kentucky. The composure exhibited by these student archers was amazing as more than 1,000 relatives, friends, and competitors witnessed the tie-breaking shoot-offs! These are the teams and individuals who won first place awards at the 2012 NASP Tournament. All other results are available at: www.archeryintheschools.org
Teams
- 1st Place High School: Trigg County HS Cadiz, Kentucky
- 1st Place Middle School: Caudill MS Richmond, Kentucky
- 1st Place Elementary School Foley Intermediate Foley, Alabama
- Individuals
- 4th Grade Female Holly Snow Independence, Kentucky
- 4th Grade Male Dihan Cloete Rustenburg, South Africa
- 5th Grade Female Agela Nyguen Foley, Alabama
- 5th Grade Male Alec Kaiser Independence, Kentucky
- 6th Grade Female Shelby Anderson Foley , Alabama
- 6th Grade Male Ronnie Jeffrey Batesville, Arkansas (tie-break)
- Middle School Female Natalie Owens North Vernon, Indiana (tie-break)
- Middle School Male Bradley Long Richmond, Kentucky
- High School Female Wendi Thomas Irvington, Alabama (Top Female)
- High School Male Cameron Peyton Lawrenceburg, Kentucky-World Record
Throughout the competition teams are encouraged to display school spirit and good sportsmanship. “Spirit Awards” were presented to: Hayden Elementary from Seymour, Indiana, Anderson County Middle School from Lawrenceburg, Kentucky, and South Africa?s team won the High School spirit prize.
Volunteers representing the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission were instrumental to the success of this world tournament. These volunteers and thousands of family members and friends were inspired by the pure joy exhibited by the young archers as they competed on a world stage their friends back home could only imagine.
Young Alex Blankenship from Roanoke, Virginia claimed special reasons for being attracted to archery, “I like archery because it is a useful skill to have in the event of a zombie apocalypse and I get to hang out with my friends!”
Many thanks to these, Medal Level Sponsors of the National Archery in the Schools
Program:
- Double Platinum: Mathews, Mission & Genesis Archery
- Platinum: Morrell Targets
- Gold: Easton Foundations
- Gold: National Wild Turkey Foundation
- Silver: Easton Technical Products
- Bronze: Rinehart Targets
- Bronze: Field Logic
- Bronze: Archery Trade Association
- Bronze: National Guard
If you would like to learn more about NASP and how to help our nonprofit foundation bring the program to more students please check us out at: at: www.archeryintheschools.org or www.nasparchery.com