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Middle School starts archery program
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| By Ryan Wilson, Staff Reporter |
November 03, 2009 |
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It's not every day kids are allowed to play with weapons at school, but this last week CCCMS students did exactly that in including archery as part of the physical education class.
The archery program is new to the class this year. Substitute teacher Mark Cunningham and physical education teacher Colby Richter spear-headed the effort. For the program to be realized, it required certification through the National Archery in Schools Program and assistance from the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks and local businesses for the equipment.
Cunningham, a bow enthusiast, said getting archery started in the school has always been a goal of his.
The first two days of the week-long class included mostly instruction on how to handle a bow, and on the last three days they fired bows in a range set up inside the CCCMS gym.
Students focused on stance and finding their anchor, the targets were set up close enough students could hit the targets most of the time. Richter said most of the students were hitting the targets.
The range took about a half hour to set up with four targets and three bows. Cunningham said they focus on safety, even though the sport has been shown to be even safer than golf.
"It doesn't take much," Cunningham said. "This sized equipment and bows are actually perfect for students, because before students can become adjusted, every students can become familiarized with he bow and focus on technique."
"I feel like it's safer to do inside because you don't have the factor of the wind," Richter said.
The students are shooting with a Matthews compound bow, a fairly advanced, "top of the line" bow, Richter said. Cunningham showed the students how well he could shoot with a larger and heavier bow.
"Yeah, I did OK," he said after shooting an arrow at approximately in the middle of the target. "When you pull back, you got to pull back so you got a pretty even anchor on this. You have to get an anchor on this."
"Stance and anchor are the two most important things," Richter said.
Cunningham also showed the students an arrow he had shot with another arrow, one on top of another, which he said he was pretty proud of because both were dead-on bull's-eyes.
The archery has kept the students' attention, which has been great throughout the class, Richter said.
"Everyone is really interested in it," she said.
Every seventh- and eighth-grader will have the opportunity to participate the archery between the P.E. classes over the two semesters. Each class has about 20 students in it. One of this semester's classes even has a few students who have gone bow hunting.
At the end of the week, the students played a few games with the bow, including one where the shooter tries to get 21 points with three or four arrows, and "blindfolded," a game where a partner guides a blindfolded shooter.
"That one's really fun," Cunningham said.
The two archery instructors are hoping to raise enough funds to start an after school archery program, which other schools have, and compete against each other in competitions. For an after school program to work, it will need more equipment, he said.
The programs current equipment was purchased with assistance of the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks and donations from Wall's True Value, Bud's Tire, Heilman Insurance, Hanson Ford and other local businesses.
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©Clay Center Dispatch 2009
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