Archery a burgeoning sport at Belgreen
Archery, the sport or practice of using a bow to shoot an arrow, is thousands of years old, and for thousands of years it was a primary skill used for hunting, warfare, and recreation. Though modern technology has made the application of archery for hunting less popular and for battle obsolete, recreational archery and archery competitions are still fairly common around the world.
One school in Franklin County has gotten in on the archery action. Belgreen, using grant money, started its archery program in 2020 and has for the last four years competed in tournaments held throughout Alabama. First started by Ryan Champion, Belgreen’s student resource officer Regina Cantrell, who had one of her own children involved, took over as the program’s sponsor a few years ago. Cantrell said the program gives students who may have not been interested in other arenas a shot at competition.
“It’s an opportunity for kids who don’t necessarily excel at team sports or other sports a chance to get involved,” Cantrell said. “I use the comparison to track because you have a team but you’re competing as an individual. Some people are better at individual stuff.”
Addison King, a junior archer in the program, concurred and added she gets sentimental and restorative value from participating.
“I got involved in archery because it’s something I always did with my papa, and I wanted to continue that,” she said. “I enjoy it because it’s very therapeutic.”
“It helps calm nerves and is great for building upper body (strength).”
Belgreen is part of the National Archery in the Schools Program or NASP. The program is available to students from fourth to 12th grade and its purpose is to improve educational performance, according to the NASP website. NASP lessons are designed to follow school curriculum, taught by school faculty and students are meant to learn “focus, self-control, discipline, patience, and the life lessons required to be successful in the classroom and in life,” according to the program’s website.
“The goal of the program is to help spread archery through the state and to teach kids focus and other skills they need,” Cantrell said.
The current Belgreen team has 12 participants ranging in years, Cantrell said, and the archers have improved at each of the tournaments they’ve participated in.
“We have one elementary archer, five middle school archers, and six high school archers,” she said. “We have done six tournaments so far this year and my archers’ scores have steadily increased by five to 10 points.”
Junior archer Landon Cantrell said seeing continued improvement in the group is part of what makes it enjoyable for him.
“Belgreen archery means a lot to me because it’s fun and we get to see each other grow at every tournament, fix our mistakes, and we also learn valuable lessons from our coach,” he said.
Regina Cantrell would like to see the program continue to grow in the years to come and has taken steps to bring more money in for the archers.
“Right now I have 12 bows so I only have 12 kids. I’m trying to get more money to buy more bows,” she said. “We’ve applied for some grants and done some fundraisers.”
Belgreen recently held a 3-on-3 basketball tournament to help raise money for the program, which went well, Cantrell added.
“If we can get more funding we can provide them with more bows and more kids can join,” she said. “It’s something I really hope we can grow bigger.”