WW archery team hitting targets, building skills

Thunk. Thunk. Thunkthunkthunk!

The West Washington archery team is hard at practice, shooting across the elementary gym before school on a Wednesday morning.

The team has been competing for the past three years and has been training for four years. They paid for the equipment through a National Archery in Schools program grant that required the school to teach archery in PE for five years. If the school used the equipment for 10 days out of each of the five years, they would get to keep the equipment. It’s saved the archery team a pretty penny, though some of the archers have their own.

“We didn’t do too well our first year, but last year, we were really excited because Hunter [Irwin, a sophomore] qualified for state,” said Coach Michelle Chastain.

He’s been shooting with the club since it began, but he’s been shooting since he was 4 or 5.

“I love just getting to see the arrow flying to the target and figuring out what you need to do to get it to land in the right spot,” he said. 

Irwin said it was pretty cool qualifying for state last year and he hoped to repeat that this year. 

“There was a lot of people there,” he said. “There was a lot of competition. I didn’t do too great. The pressure got to me, I think. The thing with archery is if you have an off day, you’re out of luck.”

He scored 267 this year and needed 278 to make it. Still, it doesn’t dim his enthusiasm.

“It’s one of my favorite things to do,” he said.

Archers can qualify as teams or individuals and teams must have at least 12 members with a balance between boys and girls. West Washington archers range from fourth through twelfth grades, with other elementary students building their skills to join the team later on.

“We’re using the elementary as building blocks for our team,” said Chastain. “We have a couple who will do really well.”

This is fifth grader Hayley Tewell’s second year in the archery club.

“My dad really got me shooting,” she said. “He got me a little kids’ bow and I fell in love with it. That was about five years ago. I was kind of happy I got to shoot at school, but I’ve had to adjust to a different bow.”

She said her favorite part was just getting to come in and shoot her bow and try to qualify for the state competition.

West Washington archers competed and performed well at a match on March 2 at Scottsburg, with Irwin ranking the highest out of all the archers, scoring 280 out of a possible 300. The school hopes to build its program to the point where it can hold matches of their own soon.

“We’re hoping to have meets here once the Scantron machine comes in,” said Chastain. The Scantron sheets are used in scoring and would enable speedier matches.

Chastain said she’s definitely seen an improvement in students who have stuck with it this year.

“In archery, after a student qualifies for state, their season really begins, so if they don’t qualify, some stop,” said Chastain.

This year, Chastain said, the team has had the potential to go to three competitions. She said “potential” because not every archer goes to every competition.

“When we go as a team, we try to get the whole team together, but if they don’t or can’t come, there’s not much we can do,” she said. 

For instance, during the qualifying match at Paoli, 33 students took part, but at the individual meet at Graceland Christian Academy, only four archers participated. Archers aren’t required to make it to a specific number of competitions, but they are held accountable for grades, just like any other sport.

“No one this year qualified for state, but the season doesn’t end until May, so schools are still hosting competitions,” said Chastain.