(by Don Meador, Allen County Schools Public Relations, February 21, 2021.
While archery---one of the most popular extra-curricular sports programs offered in the Allen County School District---has been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, the program has managed to continue this year, giving over 120 archers in the District a sense of normalcy. Plans are now proceeding for the top archers to compete again with the possibility of a return to state and national competitions and championships.
The outbreak of COVID in the spring of 2020 immediately forced local, state, and national archery officials to cancel all national in-person events last year---events that archers from the Allen County Intermediate Center, the James E. Bazzell Middle School, and the Allen County-Scottsville High School were scheduled to take part in. As the pandemic lingered, COVID presented a challenge to Allen County archery instructors---how to proceed once school resumed in September.
“I created three plans,” explained Tracy Butler, District Archery Coordinator for Allen County Schools. “One plan for if we could run our program as normal, or as close to normal, as possible. A second plan if we had to have less archers, and a plan if we were to be all virtual. Having the support of 14 coaches between the schools, we were able to accommodate all students that signed up so we did not have to reduce numbers. I also created a Bitmoji Archery Classroom to be able to stay in contact with the archers should we go all virtual.”
Not only did Butler have to plan to accommodate the school’s archers, but she also had to implement COVID guidance from multiple agencies.
“I had to combine all the new guidelines from Kentucky youth sports, the KHSAA (Kentucky High School Athletic Association), our District, and NASP® (National Archery in Schools Program) to make our practice guidelines,” Butler stated. “This included screenings and temperatures checks at the beginning of every practice, and sanitizing of any shared equipment.”
Social distancing measures and attendance limits also had to be considered.
“The biggest change is that archers would need to remain six-10 feet apart at all times,” Butler added. “Typically, two archers shoot at one target side-by-side with another archer. The new rule is one archer to a target and targets spaced six feet apart. Other guidelines required by NASP® include masks to be worn, correctly at all times, and archers will no longer score their opponents arrows; all scorings would be completed by an official at a tournament. We also limited the number of people in the gym at one time. We have 12 archers, a screener, and two coaches each day. I was not able to have the parent volunteer support as in past years due to limiting numbers, and parents were not allowed to watch practices.”
With the safety protocols in place, students at ACIC, JEBMS, and AC-SHS were given the opportunity to sign-up for archery last fall.
“We offered archery to all students in grades 4-12,” Butler explained. “We offered one hour per week practices for all those wanting to be in archery beginning after Fall Break in October. We held a clinic in October for new archers to attend to give them the basics of what our program is about. Typically, our PE teachers do this during the school day to give every student an overview of archery each year before we begin our program but our PE teachers were unable to teach it this year due to COVID and not wanting to risk students sharing equipment.”
Looking back on the last five months, Butler is pleased with the way archery has gone across the District.
“Even with all the changes COVID brought about, our regular season archery went very well and much better than I had anticipated,” Butler pointed out. “These students really enjoyed getting this opportunity.”
However, the pandemic did bring about many changes with regards to regular season tournaments. Under normal conditions, archery students could participate in NASP tournaments starting in November and continuing into late February. Top scoring archers would earn the opportunity to shoot in regional, state, and national events as the season shifted from winter to spring.
“Up until last week, no tournaments were offered, in person, in our region,” Butler noted. “But we were able to host a State Qualifier at our schools for our archers only on February 13. Our first real, in person tournament, against another school will be March 6. If we qualify for state, that is scheduled to be in-person, in Louisville, March 12 and 13. March 6 will also be the first tournament that spectators will be allowed to attend. If we qualify for State, they will allow two spectators per archer to attend.”
Butler adds that Nationals will be a Virtual Tournament like was done earlier this month. As of now, the NASP® Championships are slated to be held in person, in Myrtle Beach, in June.
Despite the COVID required guidelines, Butler was happy with the continued interest level in Allen County.
“We had 141 students to sign up for archery this year in our district,” Butler said. “Last year we had 167 archers, so this year was a little lower but still good numbers for students not knowing where our season would go, if we would get to have tournaments, or if we would be able to practice at all. We ended our Regular Season with 124 archers; with all but seven wanting to continue if chosen as a Top Archer to get to move on toward State, Nationals, and Championship.”
Interest level was highest at the youngest grade levels. This year, 33 fourth graders, 34 fifth graders, and 26 sixth graders took part. At the middle school, 18 seventh graders and 20 eighth graders participated in archery. Numbers declined at the high school where only 10 students participated. ACIC will have an elementary team going forward (fourth and fifth grade top archers) and a middle school team (sixth grade archers only). Bazzell Middle School will field a team while the high school archers will have to shoot as individuals due to a 12-person requirement for a team.
Butler adds that the regular season has closed with the elementary archers celebrating with a
balloon popping and pizza party---although weather interrupted so Thursday and Friday archers will have their parties rescheduled in March. The program also recognized their Academic Archers---those students earning all A's or B's on their quarter report.
Academic Archers from Allen County Intermediate Center include Jordan Alderson, James Tyler Berry, Aiden Blankenship, Aubry Blankenship, Gabriel Blankenship, Thomas Boaz, Thomas Bratcher, Ben Brown, Emma Brown, Jamie Brown, Nora Brown, Anderson Byrn, Bentlee Cline, Gavin Cline, Kaylee Dickerson, Melia Emery, Jacob Farrar, Bryce Fields, Corbin Ford, Madison Gaddis, Brae Gann, Scarlett Gillilan, Alayna Hart, Braylen Hart, Brian Hayes, Anzlee Hendrix, Cannon Hood, Cruz Hood, Kasen Howe, Izaiah Johns, Clayton Jones, Maverick Jones, Brookelynn Keen, Mason Keen, Isaiah Law, Chase Manley, Marissa Meador, Dani Miller, Kalea Perdue, Ada Proffitt, Tanner Reid, Rhys Robbins, Anna Rossetter, Silas Schwartz, Kayden South, Emma Spears, Camden Steenbergen, Riylan Stroebel, Levi Tabor, Eli Towe, Taylor Uhles, Madison Vick, Samuel Wheat, Maylee Whitney, Michael Whobrey, Lori Wilhelm, FaithAnna Williams, and Raegyn Wilson.
Academic Archers from the Bazzell Middle School are Foster Berry, Rhett Bratcher, Jaxen Carver, Hayley Ditlevson, Carter Douglas, James Fisher, Ella Fox, Alicia Fox, Quinn Hartman, Shyla Houchens, Cole Jackson, Travis Jackson, Lexis Loggins, Tyler Marsh, Olivia Nelson, Karissa Perdue, Keagan Petty, Rebecca Ragan, Isabella Roberts, Adalyn Skipworth, Aidan Stone, Tanner Swygart, Landon Uhles, JoyDale Williams, Landon Witt, and Ryan Wolfe.
Academic Archers from the high school include Wessly Butler, Brayden Gaddis, Cole Meador, and Calvin Smith.