While trapshooting has continued to grow among students across the region, another shooting sport is quickly gaining traction.
Archery teams can now be found in several area schools, and the number of participants continues to grow.
Active archery teams, said Jim Akers at Twisted Arrow Archery, can be found in the Poplar Bluff, Neelyville and Eminence school systems.
“We have 60 to 75 kids that are now shooting through all those schools. Each school has about 20 shooters in their club, and a few have decided to go on and do the competitions and travel,” Akers said.
Each school also has a certified archery coach overseeing its program.
“Twisted Arrow set up a training to get a teacher at each school certified in this program,” Akers said.
At Poplar Bluff, Heather Rommel is the coach, while at Neelyville, Gina Russom has taken on that task.
Teams typically practice once a week during the school year, Akers said, but that can vary.
“It depends on each school,” he said. “Poplar Bluff has continued practicing at least once a week. Neelyville and Eminence take the summer off, but all those kids are able to come participate in our shoots.”
Students from schools who don’t have an active archery club also have an option for participating.
“If your school doesn’t have an active archery club, you can come join the Southeast Missouri School of Archery and be a part of the competition,” Akers said.
The two-year-old program, Akers said, started with four shooters but grew into 10 in just one year.
“The growth has been great. The parents are great. You become an archery mom and carry bows in the back of the van, and you learn new language,” said Akers. “It’s gone well past my expectations.”
Currently, Akers said, the Southeast Missouri School of Archery has members from Poplar Bluff, Neelyville, Ellsinore and a private Christian school at Greenville.
The young archers, Akers said, can compete in several forms of the sport, including S3DA, National Field Archery Association and Missouri Bowhunters, if they wish.
Indoor events kick off the competition season, Akers said, and begin late in the calendar year.
“Normally starting in late December, we start having practices, and then our first competition is the first of January,” Akers said.
“We start off with indoor competitions, which is a five-spot on the Vegas target,” Akers explained. “We have what is called a qualifier, and you can host that at any club’s archery range.
“Once you’ve shot at least one qualifier, that allows you to shoot at the state competition. If you shoot at state, you’re offered to go to nationals.”
Normally, Akers said, indoor shooting goes until early March, when the switch to outdoor 3-D and field archery shooting takes place.
“We start our outdoor competition at the end of March and early April for 3-D and the outdoor field archery,” Akers said.
Though the youth archery programs are somewhat new, the participants have shined in competitions, with some earning state championships.
At the Missouri Bowhunters shoot Dec. 21, Poplar Bluff’s Asher Gariepy took first place, while Neelyville’s Natalie Akers earned second place honors.
At the first S3DA event of the year, several local archers earned awards.
Ellsinore’s Zoie Davis earned the win in the youth bowhunter female division, with Neelyville’s Nicole Akers right on her heels in second place.
Gariepy and Natalie Akers were awarded second place in the young adult male and youth bowhunter female divisions, respectively, while Cassie Haldeman took third place in the young adult bowhunter female division and Robbie Haldeman earned second place in the youth bowhunter male division.
In March, Gariepy again dominated by winning the top spot at the Missouri Bowhunters state indoor tournament, with several other local shooters placing in the top five in their divisions.
At the Missouri state S3DA competition in mid-March, Davis was the champion in the youth female bowhunter division, and several others also placed at the event.
Shooters from the Southeast Missouri School of Archery did especially well at the S3DA state shoot in Springfield in May.
Blaine Humphrey became the state champion in the eagle male bowhunter division, while Addison Dean captured the win in the youth female bowhunter division, followed by Nicole Akers in second.
Robbie Haldeman took home the second-place trophy in the youth male bowhunter group, and Davis, Colton Starks and Gariepy each took third in their groups and Cassie Haldeman took fourth.
“Archery has been really fun for me,” said Humphrey, 12, who placed 13th out of 76 shooters last weekend at the nationals in London, Kentucky. “Competing in S3DA has taught me a lot but I still have a lot to learn.”