After trekking more than 250 miles to Louisville, Ky. this past weekend for the national archery championships, the Logan-Hocking Middle School archery team came home with a third-place title.
The coed team of 24 middle school students competed against 7,000 other seventh- and eighth-grade students on 102 middle school teams in target shooting, said Steve Dietz, the archery coach and teacher at Logan-Hocking Middle School in Logan, Ohio.
“This is only our fourth year as a team,” Dietz said. “I’m very pleased with our performance.”
Teams from 32 states as far away as Alaska competed in the National Championship put on by the National Archery in Schools Program May 13 and 14, Dietz said.
Students shot 30 arrows at circular targets from both 10 and 15 meters to achieve a maximum score of 300 points individually and 3,600 as a team, according to the program’s tournament guidelines.
The Logan-Hocking Middle School team shot 167 10-point shots on their way to a total score of 3,346 points, only 57 points behind the winning team’s score of 3,403. The winning team is from Alabama, according to the program’s tournament results.
Athens Middle School’s archery team also participated in the tournament, scoring 2,955 points for 90th place in the middle school competition, according to the results.
The Logan-Hocking team spends about three days a week practicing after school during the season, which begins in October and continues through the state championships in March, Dietz said.
After placing first in the state tournament, the team continued practicing for the national competition in May, Dietz said.
Although the majority of the archery team will move on to high school next year, the middle school team will remain very competitive, Dietz said.
“I feel confident the middle school and high school teams will be in the top five for nationals next year,” Dietz said.
The tradition of hunting in the Hocking area helps the team succeed because parents will often take their children hunting with bows, Dietz said.
In addition, local interest helps the team raise funds for expenses, which totaled about $18,000 last year, Dietz said, adding the school does not pay for any of the program.
Dan Perko, spokesman for the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, said Ohio’s high performance in the tournament is mainly because of the quality teachers in the program.
“We have quality teachers and they put in a lot of effort,” Perko said. “They have done really well and it reflects in the students’ performance.”
The Division of Wildlife supports the archery program as a life sport, and not a hunting one, Perko said.
“The program has been really great,” said Perko. “Grades (of participants) have improved, attendance has improved and the students are involved. We’re really pleased.”
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