Straight-shooting students

Straight-A student Hayley Lawrence breezes through most of her fourth grade courses with ease, but dedicated most of Friday and Saturday to probably her favorite school subject.

“Shooting archery is fun and it gives me a lot of confidence,” said the girl from Tribune, which is near the Colorado border. “This is a sport I can do at my age. I really like shooting and watching all of the arrows.”

Hayley was one of 14 students to make the 10-hour round-trip journey to Clearwater High School, where they met fourth- through 12th-grade kids from all corners of Kansas for this year’s National Archery in the Schools Program state championship shoot.

“Last year we had 320 kids and this year we had about 410 register,” said Mark Moore, who teaches physical education for Clearwater schools and helped organize the state shoot for the second straight year. “There are probably many more kids who would have loved to have come, but not nearly all of the schools come to the state shoot.”

Far and wide

Gary Keehn, Kansas Archery in the Schools Program coordinator, said there are more than 80 Kansas school districts enrolled in the program that teaches archery within the general school curriculum.

“I don’t know how many actual schools that means because some districts may have five or six different schools. I’m sure it’s easily over 200,” he said. “It’s still growing and we’re getting more and more teachers asking to be trained to teach it.”

It’s not just so in Kansas.

“We figure we had around 2.55 million kids participate during the last school year, and we’re growing at about nine percent per year,” said Roy Grimes, National Archery in the Schools Program director. “That includes 47 states, eight Canadian provinces and we’re up to 10 countries now with the program.” That’s a lot of growth in not a lot of time.”

Grimes said the idea of including archery in physical education programs was born in Kentucky about 13 years ago. The main goal was to get kids away from televisions and electronic games and outside.

In 2002, 21 Kentucky schools tried the program, offering to arrange training for teachers and volunteers to help the students, and to sell kits that included a dozen or so one-size-fits-all compound bows, scores of arrows, targets and a large arrow-proof screen so shooting could be done safely indoors.

The kits are often at least partially funded by national archery equipment companies, state game departments or local conservation groups. Keehn thinks this is the ninth year the program has been in Kansas schools.

Many of the state’s physical education teachers have volunteered for instructor training. It’s even being taught within the teachers programs at some colleges, like Fort Hays State, Keehn said.

Safety is the first thing that’s taught to the instructors, and then to the students.

Keith Pauly was principal at Clearwater Middle School when Moore asked to bring the program to his school.

“I admit I was skeptical but then I saw how structured the program is, I knew we wouldn’t have any problems, and we haven’t,” said Pauly. “It’s safe.”

Moore said unlike some subjects, kids enjoy archery so much that it about guarantees safety.

“We’re extremely disciplined, and these kids know that it’s one strike and they’re out,” he said. “I guarantee you nearly all kids fall so in love with archery they won’t be making any mistakes because they might lose it.”

He said the idea that poor grades can cost them archery privileges also helps motivates the young archers to do well in class.

A sport for all

“One of the best things is that it’s for all kids, especially those who aren’t into other sports,” Moore said. “We’ve had kids who’ve struggled with other (physical education) activities that do great with archery and just really get addicted to it.”

It’s a sport where males and females can excel on equal terms. Grimes said about 45 percent of 12,000 kids who will compete in May’s national championship will be females.

“So often our best scores are shot by girls,” Grimes said. “Our world record is co-held by a girl and a boy.”

Keehn said he’s had his heart warmed many times when an instructor tells him of a student with a particular challenge that steps up, fires a few arrows and then wears a smile that doesn’t fade for hours. He and Grimes have success stories of kids with cerebral palsy, those bound to wheelchairs and some with things like mild forms of autism having life-changed experiences because of archery success.

One of the sport’s biggest challenges, Moore said, is that the students like it so much they’re not satisfied with the few weeks it’s taught in physical education classes. He said the Clearwater school system has around 180 kids in its archery club, which meets after school three times per week in the fall and spring.

Lindsay Lawrence, Hayley’s mother, said she has no trouble getting her daughter up and around in time to attend the 7 a.m. weekly archery practices at her school. Lawrence is glad her daughter is so into archery she wanted, and got, a bow for Christmas and often uses the backyard range they’ve created. The fourth-grader had grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins join her mother to watch her at Saturday’s shoot.

Keehn, also a high school educator, and Moore said they like knowing they’ve taught kids a sport they can enjoy the rest of their lives.

When a reporter asked fourth grade Hayley, who responds to interview questions a maturity beyond her years, if she thought she’d be shooting archery as an adult, her head snapped back a little and her eyes narrowed in an obvious, “I can’t believe you even asked that question” kind of look.

After a few seconds, she sternly said, “I’ll probably be doing archery forever.”

This story was originally published March 28, 2015 at 6:50 PM with the headline "Straight-shooting students."