Beech Tree News Network

Butler County is buzzing about archery these days!  For anyone who is interested here is some information regarding the archery program at Morgantown Elementary that may help explain what all the excited fuss has been about. 
Archery is a really HOT sport these days and is growing steadily!  Little has really been known about it as a school sport in Butler County until the past couple of years.  It is such a growing program because it is a sport that is probably more even keeled than any other sport.  All archers must use the same type bow, the same type arrow, they shoot from the same distances and have the same number of points assigned NO MATTER what age/grade you are!  In addition, team scoring is consistent and very structured.  Here’s how it works:  each team may have up to 24 members; each archer could have a possibility of 300 total points; after a flight the scores are calculated and the team score is made up with the top 4 boy scores, the top 4 girl scores and then the next 4 highest.

At MES, the archery program was introduced in the fall with children 2nd grade through 5th grade. signing up.  Per NASP rules, only 2nd graders and up are allowed to shoot and they can only shoot in local tournaments.  Third graders that meet certain NASP criteria can shoot beyond local tournaments such as regionals, state, nationals and world.  In this sport, archers can shoot as part of a team or as individuals.  In total, there were about 70 children who participated in practices and in various tournaments in the surrounding counties.   In order to compete at tournaments as a team, there are various factors to take into account and the coaches developed a Team A and a Team B for purposes of the tournaments.  The group of children – now referred to as Team A began to score high enough in local tournaments that heads began to look at MES Archery with excitement – a first year team scoring at this level after four months of practice is not seen very often.  With that encouragement, the team A coaches, archers and families began to ask – what next?  That would be regional and state archery tournaments which meant there are two in our area in Hopkinsville (state qualifier) and Owensboro(regional and state qualifier).  An excited group of families made the effort to try it out and efforts paid off.  Team A headed to Hopkinsville and earned a Team score of 2,880 which led them to a 1st place trophy at that tournament.  In Owensboro they continued to climb in scores as they earned 2,926 which earned them a 3rd place trophy there.  These scores meant that the team was automatically qualified for the State Archery Tournament.  In the same tournaments, there were individual children who had high enough scores to compete in individual state tournament as well.  The team score earned at the State tournament held in March was high enough to rank MES Archery in 28th place with a score of 2,929 total team points.   (There were a total of 58 elementary schools from the state in this competition.
So much excitement – so what’s next?  That score automatically made the team eligible for the National NASP tournament and the World NASP tournament.  The team, with new information about new possibilities, regrouped and headed to the National tournament which was held in Louisville, KY on May 12-14 (MES flight was on May 13).  The kids did so well that they scored 3,013 total points which ranked them 59 out of 156 elementary schools from across the United States!    In addition, to that 59th ranking nationally, MES was the 21st highest scoring elementary school representing Kentucky.  Another exciting fact for MES students is the fact that seven of our students ranked in the top 50 in the Nation for their age and gender out of the nearly 13500 students that shot at Nationals.
Now, are you ready for the next step?  These children will go on to compete at the World Tournament to be held in Myrtle Beach, SC in June.  The MES Patriots will have their flight at 12:15 ET on Friday June 24. 
So that’s what the fuss is all about!  A team of 3rd through 5th graders turning heads as a first year archery team because they are making the scores one arrow at a time!
MES PATRIOTS Team A Members
Maelyn Bilicki, 4th grade
Sally Butler, 4th grade
 Andrew Gill, 5th grade
Emma Givens, 4th grade
Case Hooten, 3rd grade
Reese Hudnall, 5th grade
Trenton Inglis, 5th grade
Olivia Johnson, 4th grade
Morgan McKinney, 4th grade
Jake Mckee, 5th grade
Triton Morris, 5th grade
Hailey Pearson, 5th grade
Layton Phelps, 5th grade
Cayden Southerland, 3rd grade
Ryn Taylor, 5th grade
Brayden Tomes, 3rd grade
Connor Thompson, 4th grade
Lydia Wilcox, 4th grade
Ryleigh White, 3rd grade
More information about NASP tournaments, scores for schools and individuals can be found at www.nasptournaments.org