Archery In The Schools

A Great Program Rolls On December 5, 2012 Reporter: Patrick McMurtry Videographer: Brad Rice

If you want to see a lot of kids who can compete with the best archers in the country, check out the annual Archery in the Schools state tournament. Hundreds of kids pick up a bow and put the arrows in the bulls eye as they fight it out to be the best in the state. The program has become incredibly popular with kids, coaches, teachers and parents. Explosive is the only word to describe the growth of the Archery in the Schools program.

Krista Snodgrass with The West Virginia Division of Natural Resources explains the program's incredible growth. "The growth and number of kids participating, we've reached seventy two thousand kids in the eight years the program has been going. If we can continue to see that growth with the movies that are coming out, with more kids getting involved and more kids getting into the outdoors, we're seeing a 10-20% growth every year."

At that rate, Archery in the Schools will hit the one hundred thousand mark in no time-that's incredible given the relatively small population in West Virginia. Something else that's incredible is the continuing involvement and growing excitement shown by the teachers and coaches filling up the Archery in the Schools training sessions.

"In the past 8 years, our program has continued to expand. We are filling up our training every time. This training is the largest we've ever had with almost thirty five people participating. We are filling up our training and we already have another training scheduled and it's filling up." says Snodgrass.

The classes are filling up in Greenbrier County where virtually every middle school student is getting Archery in the School training thanks to a nearly one million dollar federal grant, part of which goes to fund the program in Greenbrier County.

Cheri Hall, with Greenbrier County Schools, explains the grant. "The funding came from a PUP grant, it's a 3 year federal grant. We are in our second year. Everyone one of that goes through our physical education classes will receive the training and we will also provide weekend activities for about twelve hundred students."

More coaches, more kids participating, new technology to get even more involved-you can feel the momentum with every pull of the string.

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