Archery

STANFORD - Archery has been a part of Aaron Cook's life for as long as he can remember, however, it never occurred to him that the sport he loved would some day help pay for his education. But Cook is on target to have archery do just that, becoming the first Lincoln County High School student to get an archery scholarship when he signed to shoot for the University of the Cumberlands. “There really wasn't any place that you could do that and get a scholarship, at least not any place that I was interested in,” Cook said.

Children will be hunting wild turkeys, deer, black bears and baboons — well, actually replicas of those creatures — this Saturday at Blackfish Golf and Hunt Club. Angela Rice, co-owner of the club, said that 200 children from Jessamine County will be there for the opening day of a new archery course, and the public is also invited to attend. “We’ll have food and an open house, and kids can take tours,” she said. But the archery isn’t just for kids, although it is a fast-growing sport in elementary schools.

Eve Baxter, a 7th grader at West Jessamine Middle School, broke the school record for individual total with a 271 at the regional archery tournament last week at The Providence School. Baxer finished second in the regional and qualified to compete in Louisville on March 16 at the State Tournament.

The George Rogers Clark High School archery team has made great progress in only its third year of existence. Archery coach Pat Watts has been pleased with how well the team has fared this year. "We went from not winning anything at all the last two years to qualifying for nationals," she said. The team took third place in the regional competition, which also qualified them for the state archery tournament. From there, Clark qualified for the national level of competition.

Several students let arrows fly at the Pilot View School archery club practice Thursday afternoon. Pilot View fourth-grade teacher Stacey Wasson serves the club as archery coach. The school formed the archery club in March using equipment borrowed from the local Clark County 4-H and from Boone's Creek Camp. The club hopes to begin shooting competitively next school year. There are 25 team members from the fourth and fifth grades.

The Nicholasville/Jessamine County Parks and Recreation Department received a grant to start an archery program. The $500 grant will help with start up costs associated with the program. "We're going to be using to start up a program," Parks Director Duane McCuddy said. "You can use it to expand on your program but we don't have a program, so we'll use it to start one here. " The idea for the program came from the growing popularity of the sport. "It was just brought to my attention six months ago the archery program was an up and coming sport and I started attending the contests and seeing how many people were involved in it," McCuddy said.

The Providence School archery team will be hosting a fundraising event, Bull's-eye and Barbecue, Saturday, Sept. 19, beginning at 10 a.m. at the school located at 200 Computex Drive, off Catnip Hill Road and U.S. 27. Money raised from the event will be used to offset the cost of the team's trip the Archery in the Schools World Tournament Oct. 9, in Orlando, Fla. The event will begin with an archery competition pairing a student with an...

As mischievous as it sounds, the West Jessamine Middle School Archery Team is allowed to shoot sharp objects across a room with without getting into trouble. It's archery, and the students from WJMS who participate on the team enjoy it a lot. "It's fun," said WJMS student Abby Palmer. "It makes you think. " With an almost carbon copied response, Abby's twin sister, Hannah, said, "It makes you concentrate on what you're doing. " Their concentration paid off. Abby finished in the top 16 on the Colts 24-member team, which placed 11th out of 43 teams from around the country.

It doesn't matter if you're young or just young at heart, learning to shoot a bow is fun for any age. And this Saturday, it's also FREE! Those pondering taking up the sport can step up and try their hand at archery Saturday, Aug. 9 at the Salato Wildlife Education Center in Frankfort. Trained Salato staff will assist anyone big enough to pull back a bow from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Basic instruction, bows, targets and other equipment will be provided by the Salato Center. The cost is free.

STANFORD - Archery has been a part of Aaron Cook's life for as long as he can remember, however, it never occurred to him that the sport he loved would some day help pay for his education. But Cook is on target to have archery do just that, becoming the first Lincoln County High School student to get an archery scholarship when he signed to shoot for the University of the Cumberlands. “There really wasn't any place that you could do that and get a scholarship, at least not any place that I was interested in,” Cook said.

This winter, Kentucky high-school students will have another opportunity to compete in a championship sport as archery was made the newest sport-activity to join the championship ranks. Archery is nothing new to high schools - especially in Jessamine County - but archers will now have the chance to win a state championship. Kentucky is one of the first states nationally to offer archery as a varsity sport-activity, KHSAA said in an August press release. Eric Sowers, a teacher at The Providence School who has coached Providence's archery team for a number of years, will also coach the East and West programs.

The Jessamine County 4-H archery team participated in the District 4 tournament in July. The team had several members who placed first, second or third in their divisions, and the 12- to 14-year-olds came home with first place as best team out of several counties participating. Team members also competed in the state 4-H contest Sept. 15 and brought home two second-place team awards and a second place individual award. Pictured are team members, standing from left to right, Josiah Renner, Caleb Young, Austin Bottoms, Madison Walker, Dakota Walker and Taylor Rainwater; and on the bottom row from left to right, Austin Spears, Joshua Alden, Alexander Griffin, Dakota Clark and Jared Murphy.

Jessamine County archers are preparing for a trip to the world tournament in October, hoping to be one of the top 10 teams in the world for the third time in the last five years. The Providence School archery team includes students from Providence as well as some from East Jessamine High School, West Jessamine High School and East Jessamine Middle School. Sixteen students from the team will travel to Orlando, Fla., for the National Archery in Schools Program (NASP) world tournament Oct. 4-6. The team is currently in the middle of fundraising for the trip.

Conkwright Middle School archery coach Roger Ritchie called for five students to line up and aim at a recent practice. They drew back their bows, fired, and four out of five hit a bullseye.   No big deal, according to seventh-grade student Ashley Dunaway. Bullseye shots have become routine for the students. What makes their skills even more impressive is that, for many of the students, archery is brand new. Only one elementary school, Pilot View, has an official archery club, and students often come in as sixth-graders having never shot before.

HARRODSBURG — It’s nothing new for someone in Kentucky to talk about a national championship, but usually the topic is basketball. Caleb Ward, a 17-year-old senior at Mercer County High School, has his sights set on a national archery championship, however. Ward won his third consecutive state championship Sunday and will compete for the national championship March 26-27 in Louisville. “This past Sunday, I hit the bull’s eye in 59 out of 60 shots,” says Ward, who practices every day at his home on Dry Branch Road.

Conkwright Middle School’s archery team practiced at Blackfish Golf and Hunt Club Monday afternoon for a regional tournament March 5 at Caudill Middle in Madison County. Kay-Leigh Gleffe, front, didn’t break her concentration after her arrow left her bow.

Children will be hunting wild turkeys, deer, black bears and baboons — well, actually replicas of those creatures — this Saturday at Blackfish Golf and Hunt Club. Angela Rice, co-owner of the club, said that 200 children from Jessamine County will be there for the opening day of a new archery course, and the public is also invited to attend. “We’ll have food and an open house, and kids can take tours,” she said. But the archery isn’t just for kids, although it is a fast-growing sport in elementary schools.

Connor Patterson, a member of the Lincoln County High School Archery Team, was at the top of his shooting game at the 2010 National Archery in the Schools Program Tournament in Louisville, rising to the top of the individual rankings in all divisions contested. The Lincoln County Middle School seventh-grader scored a 294 out of a possible 300 at the national competition to place him second overall out of a field of over 1,355 middle school competitors. It was a closely-contested division, with just five points separating the top nine shooters.

The Providence Archery team, since its inception, has had it's share of surprising finishes. In May, the team shot a school-best 3,166 to finish 28th in the national tournament. That performance earned the team a trip to Florida for the world tournament, where Providence placed in the top 10. Providence placed ninth overall with a team score of 3,098, thanks to a number of personal best performances, even if they had to improvise for one of them. In the sixth grade boys division, Ben O'Connell shot 233 to earn 38th place while Shelby White's 224 earned her 33rd place for freshmen girls.