Winter is near, and the Beaver Area Archery Club is beginning its 24th year of intrastate domination.
Since October 14, archery practice has been flying straight in the middle school gym.
Practices start at 6 a.m. and last until around 7:15 every day before school except Fridays.
When tournament season rolls around, practices will be mandatory. There are usually eight tournaments per season that the Bobcats participate in, along with the State Championship and Nationals.
There is a $25 fee to join the club, but you don’t have to buy bows or arrows—Coach Russ Sabo (in tandem with assistant coaches Clay Stewart, Bob O’Brien, Chris Totsky, and Ryan Subroski) covers all the other fees. They provide free-to-use bows and arrows, and tournaments are also free for all participating archers.
At practice, prospective archers can expect to shoot around 10 rounds of five arrows each at 10 meters away. Later in the season, archers will shoot a couple rounds at 10 meters and then the rest from 15 meters away.
For most of practice, archers shoot at their own pace, but for safety they are expected to get on the shooting line and collect arrows at the same time.
Practice is usually straightforward, but archers can also expect to play the classic Coach Russ favorite—Draw and Hold—and also shoot ornaments off of paper trees during the wintertime.
Tournaments usually last around an hour, with archers shooting four volleys from the 10 meter line (one practice round and three scoring rounds) and four volleys from the 15 meter line.
Scoring at the tournaments is out of 300—the maximum score you can get for 30 arrows. For example, if you shoot all nines, your score will be a 270/300. A minimum of a 275 personal best and around a 75% attendance rate will earn you a letter in archery.
This year’s season seems to be similar to past seasons—same place, same time, same archers (and some new ones), and the same coaches. This year, however, the State Tournament is held in Manheim, Pennsylvania March 21, and Nationals is held in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina June 5–7.
Coach Russ is ready for this year’s season: “We’ve reloaded and we’re gonna knock on the door and hopefully it swings open for us.”
There are 26 archers signed up for the club this year, and we already have some prodigies: sophomore Anna Mateer, whose personal best is 284, and junior Nathan Subroski, whose personal best is 278.
About the upcoming season, freshman Robert DeLeon said, “I think we’re going to do well this season.”
A new face in the archery program this year, senior Stephen Boyd, said, “My arrows are flyer than my outfit!”
Indeed.