On Friday, March 30, the Greenwood Archery team made the trip to the NASP (National Archery in the Schools Program) State Tournament. Put on by the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife, the State Tournament took place in Louisville at the Fairgrounds.

Being an “official” Greenwood sport since 2013, this is the first year that Greenwood has made it past region onto state. But, not only did the archery team make it to State this year, they made it past State onto Nationals with an overall team score of 3,242.

Unlike normal team sports, each archer is on their own during shooting but all scores get added up in the end. Archers use a Genesis compound bow and shoot five arrows per round with a total of eight rounds, four rounds at 10 meters away from the target and four at 15 meters away from the target. The aim of shooting is to try and score a 300 by hitting all tens. Though, you can shoot and score as low as a 0 if you miss the target.

Mr. Foust said that the team “shot well at state but not as well as they had been shooting earlier on in the year.” He wishes that the top archers would have done better than what they did, although, he had some archers who shot their personal best at both Region and State.

Trevor Rawls and Hannah Basham, both seniors, said that the secret to shooting is practice. Emily Wilkerson, a junior, said that her posture is what helps her shoot the best. If she is not standing exactly the same in all rounds, her scores and aiming points are off. Mr. Foust’s shooting advice is to “stay calm, and stay focused.”
All Greenwood archers are excited to be going to Nationals for the first time ever. Trevor and Hannah think that the team will do “at par” while Emily thinks that the team is going to do great for the first year to make it to Nationals. Mr. Foust said that he hopes his archers will shoot as well as they did when they won the shoot at Bardstown earlier in the year.