Originally published on February 3, 2024.

By Jeffrey Kanode, RealWV

Twenty fourth and fifth grade children stood with their feet carefully on the shooting line on the gym floor, in their hands a bow and an arrow in each bow. They held their hands steady while their young eyes were fixed steelily on the target many yards ahead of them.

Coaches didn’t have to give verbal instructions. A whistle guided students through each step: one whistle meant shooting, five whistles meant stopping. Students barely spoke to each other except to compare scores after each round, as each student strode toward the target to score their own score. The newborn Frankford Elementary Archery team’s practice sessions are just like the tournaments in which these students compete and gain experience: a competition marked by silence, discipline, and focus.

But the kids are having fun.

You can see it in their eyes and in the liveliness that characterizes their brief conversations between shootings.

Susan Anderson, a physical education teacher at Frankford Elementary School and head archery coach, thanks Alderson Elementary School and coaches Jason Ward and Matt Holiday for encouraging other schools in Greenbrier County to offer archery to their students. “I wouldn’t have gotten involved without them. They did the training at Chief Logan State Park, came back and showed us their program. Jason and Matt encouraged us from the beginning to start our own program,” she said.

The National Archery in the Schools Program (NASP, not to be confused with a school psychology program of the same name) provides school administrators, coaches, parents and community sponsors with the education and framework to create an archery program for their school. The organization’s website announces tournaments, lists school rankings and is where schools and families can purchase all the materials needed for an archery program.

Bows, arrows, quivers and targets are not cheap items, so community support is needed. Anderson and the other coaches – her husband Jim and Shawn Woods – work hard not only to teach the students, but also to find community partners and sponsors for the program. So far, the Frankford community has provided incredible support, she noted.

Susan Anderson believes passionately in the value and positive impact of archery in schools. “It’s a game changer for kids,” she thought as she looked across the gym to all her archers. “Not all kids can play basketball or football. Archery can teach these students how to shoot and give them a hobby, a sport they can enjoy for the rest of their lives.”

According to the newly qualified archery coach, archery teaches students how to focus their minds and bodies, control themselves and conduct themselves, and gives them new confidence. “These kids don’t have to be at school like they are here after school, but they want to be,” Anderson exclaimed. “They’re passionate about it too – they want to help us set up the equipment and they want to be there when we take it down. They’re involved in a big way. We have one or two students who had serious absences last year, and this year the kids are here for archery. They want to be here. It’s such a beautiful program.”

In addition to the mental and physical skills that archery teaches students, the program also incorporates other disciplines and talents, including art. The coach pointed to the students’ bows: several of them were adorned with colorful bowstrings, flanked by handles and centerpieces reflecting the various colors of the rainbow, and housed in quivers decorated with the artistic touch inherent in elementary-age archers.

Every fourth-grader at Frankford Elementary will receive six weeks of archery instruction as part of their physical education class. After this initial classroom training, any fourth- and fifth-grader can join the Frankford Archery Team. The Pirates will compete in tournaments across West Virginia this month, including at Greystone Baptist in Lewisburg on Saturday, February 3 (hosted by Alderson Elementary), at Summers County High in Hinton on Saturday, February 10, on a trip north to the Charleston Coliseum on Saturday, February 17, and back to their home region at Mountain View Elementary in Union on Saturday, February 24. The team hopes to compete in the WVDNR Archery in the Schools State Tournament in Charleston on Saturday, March 30.

“We’re a brand new program that just started this fall, but these kids are doing great,” Susan Anderson reflected. “Maybe we’ll come to the States.”