Archery classes right on target

By Lauren Radomski (Contact) | The Daily Journal

Published Wednesday, January 9, 2008

When Battle Lake teacher Blaine Larson introduced archery to his physical education class last spring, the response was as good as it could get.

“Out of 25 kids, the first time we taught it, everyone gave very positive comments,” he said. “It was really a good unit, I thought.”

That unit was funded in part by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, the local sponsor of the National Archery in the Schools program. The program teaches International style target archery in fourth through 12th grade physical education classes around the country, with a focus on archery history, safety, technique, mental concentration and self-improvement, among other subjects.

In Minnesota, schools must provide half of the roughly $3,000 equipment cost, with the DNR funding the rest for qualified grant applicants. Now in its fourth year, the Archery in the Schools program involves approximately 85,000 students at 230 schools around the state, said Kraig Kiger of the Minnesota Shooting Sports Education Center in Grand Rapids.

Joining these schools this year is Underwood Public School. Community Education Director Anne Stenoien applied for a grant this fall and said she expects the school’s equipment — bows, arrows, targets, a safety net and a repair kit — to arrive in coming weeks.

Thanks to funding from Whitetails Unlimited and the DNR, both the Underwood and Battle Lake programs come at virtually no cost to the schools. West Otter Tail County 4-H also contributed to Underwood’s program, and 4-H program coordinator Tammy Nordick is one of four instructors trained to lead archery sessions.

For Kiger, one of the best parts of the Archery in the Schools program is its effect outside the shooting range.

“It teaches persistence and discipline and self-reliance and all these things we want our kids to have in life,” he said. “What we’re finding is that it carries over to other areas in life.”

Not only that, Kiger said, but archery offers a sense of belonging to students who don’t gravitate towards other sports or school activities. Kiger has noticed this among students attending the annual state archery competition sponsored by the DNR.

“For some of these students — and I’ve seen it in their faces — this is the first time they’re representing their school communities,” he said. “All of a sudden they belong to a school sport.”

In some schools, Kiger said, teachers may incorporate archery into other classes, discussing kinetic energy in a science class, for example. This fall, Larson taught archery in his ag science class.