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OGDEN — More than 800 students from dozens of Utah schools have been participating in the National Archery in School Program's annual state tournament over the past three days.
Students in grades four through 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 is to see the kids he coaches go from completely missing the target to being proficient archers at a remarkably young age.
"We now have a class of 50 kids at our school who are involved in the archery program," Hill said. "These kids range from very athletic kids to kids who aren't athletic at all and they go from not even being able to hit the target to being zeroed in on the yellow (the center of the target) by the time they go to the tournament at the end of the year."
Each participant at the Weber County Archery Park takes turns testing their skills with a bow and arrow by firing a quiver of arrows at a target from a 10-meter distance and a 15-meter distance. The competition was held Thursday through Saturday.
Hill says archery is unique in that it's a sport that is accessible to everyone, regardless of athletic predisposition.
"I think that the sport builds confidence and gives them another reason to come to school when some of the kids have trouble with doing that," Hill said. "I've had parents tell me that the archery program is the only reason why their child goes to school."
The National Archery in Schools Program serves as an excellent motivator for students to do well in school, according to the shooting sports manager with the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, Levi Bassett. Teachers at participating schools can set parameters around GPAs and attendance records that students must meet to participate in the program and qualify to compete in their local tournament at the end of the year.
Bassett said the National Archery in Schools Program has seen increasing success in being implemented in Utah schools over the years, with 165 schools participating in the program with about 30% of those schools participating in the annual National Archery in Schools state tournament.
"The reason we like this program a lot is because we call archery the great equalizer sport because it doesn't matter how tall you are, how fast you are, how much money your parents have or whether you come from a rich school district or not," said Bassett. "The kids shoot the exact same bows and the exact same arrows from fourth grade to 12th 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, or football or baseball," said 13-year-old Anna Hawkins, who is a student at Rocky Mountain Middle School and who's been participating in the archery program for two years.
Anna explained how she enjoys the fact that she gets to participate in the sport with her friends and make memories with them where everyone is having fun doing something to improve their acumen in a sport. She says archery is for everyone and that all kids out there should give it a shot if it is available to them in their school.
"If you look at people and say that you're never going to be as good as them, you should just give this sport a try and practice," Anna said. "You never know, you might become really good at archery when you don't expect it — you've just got to keep practicing and doing what you love."
For tournament results click here.
