About The Team
Teams
Grades 4th through 8th are eligible to be a part of the Archery Program at St. Patrick. Grades 4th and 5th will be placed on the Middle School team, and 6th through 8th grade archers will be placed on our Middle School team. Each team consists of a maximum of 24 archers. Of those 24, the top 12 scores make up a team score.
Due to gym time restrictions, we only have a limited number of archers that we can accept. Ideally we have one Elementary School and one Middle School team. We do not have the facilities to accommodate more archers than our maximum, so it's important to register your archers as soon as possible!
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Practice usually begin between mid-September and the first of October. The season’s first tournament is around Halloween, and the season could go all the way until July (if we qualify for National and World).
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Practices are generally held once a week on Wednesday evenings, in two shifts beginning from 6:00PM to 9:00PM (depending upon which team you’re archer is on), in the gym.
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We have up to 40 archers ppracticing at one time – 2 archers per target. This is how tournaments will be run, so our archers will be used to this when they get to competitions.
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Ideally, each archer purchases his or her own bow, arrows and target, so they can practice at home as well.
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Please mark your calendars for Wednesday nights – it is vital to be at each practice!
Practices
Tournaments
Tournaments are held on weekends – usually on Saturdays, with a few on Friday evenings – and are held indoors. Times could be morning, afternoon or evening – just depending upon which time slots are available when we sign up. Your archer’s tournament will last approximately 1 hour. The coaches ask that everyone arrive 30 minutes before your time slot to get settled in and registered. Therefore, your total time spent at a tournament will be about 1½ hours.
Some parents bring a good pair of binoculars, because you will want to see how your archer is shooting, and it’s hard to see their scores from the bleachers!
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The ST. Patrick teams will attend numerous invitational tournaments, culminating with the DISTRICT Tournament at the end of January. If we do well enough, we will move on to the STATE Tournament. Those teams who do well enough there qualify for the NATIONAL Tournament, and finally, those who do well enough there qualify for the WORLD Tournament! To date, the WORLD Tournament has been hosted in a variety of locations, including both Orlando, FL and here in the Ville.
Prizes are given at each tournament for the top archers in each category, and archers can even earn college scholarships if they do really well! Archers are able to advance both as a team AND as an individual. So if we have some incredible scores, but not enough for the entire team to advance, those archers could still advance individually.
An NASP target is large, and consists of 10 scoring rings, numbered 1-10 (bullseye). Archers will shoot a total of 40 arrows at each tournament – 10 practice and 30 “scoring.”
They will begin at 10M with a practice round of 5 arrows. They will then shoot 3 scoring rounds of 5 arrows each, all at 10M. They will then move on and repeat this same process, but at 15M.
Therefore, archers will have 15 arrows that “score” for each distance – 10M and 15M. Adding the scores for the two distances will give the archer their total score. Since there are 30 arrows that count for “score,” and a bullseye is worth 10 points, the maximum score an archer can shoot in a tournament is 300.
Scoring
Equipment
NASP uses ONLY the NASP Genesis compound bow. No other bows are allowed! They also do not allow any sighting devices or release-assists. Your archer will become a “purist” – shooting without having to rely on anything other than their own eye and concentration. They also only allow the NASP Genesis Arrows to be used. This allows for ALL archers to have the exact same chance as everyone else – the only advantage any archer will have over another is their own physical strength and amount of practice they’ve put in.
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St. Patrick has made a substantial investment to begin this program, and has a number of bows, arrows and targets available for practice at school. We can also lend bows to students for the weekend tournaments. YOU DO NOT HAVE TO BUY YOUR OWN BOW… BUT… if at all possible, I highly recommend and encourage parents to purchase their archer(s) their own bow, arrows and target. Not only will this enable your archer to have a bow that is exactly suited to them, but it will also allow them to practice at home, since one night of practice a week is not the most desirable situation. Archers who have their own bow have a distinct advantage over those archers who do not.
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If you do decide to purchase your own equipment, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND purchasing your equipment from King’s Archery (502-499-6543). While it is true that you can purchase it from Dick’s, Academy or Cabela’s, King’s has much more expertise with NASP. I found this out the hard way (and I am a BIG fan of Cabela’s). When I purchased my son’s bow, I purchased it from Cabela’s. They know all about hunting bows, but not much about NASP bows. King’s focuses on NASP. When you purchase a NASP bow from them, they will actually adjust the draw weight for your child, right there in the store. Your child can then test fire it on their indoor range, and make sure they have it set at a draw weight that they are comfortable with. They’ll also give you some great pointers while you’re there. Being able to walk out of the store with your bow being already matched to your child is a very big advantage!
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If you have your own bow, you can bring it with you to practice on Wednesday nights. Also, by having your own bow, when you shoot at a tournament, your child is shooting a bow that they’re already familiar with, and is already perfectly adjusted to their draw weight.
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Please understand that it is NOT a requirement for you to purchase your child(ren) their own equipment! It will just give them a much better advantage over being forced to rely on what is available to them at the time, plus allow them to practice more, by also being able to practice at home.
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That being said, if we are inundated with new members this year, then our supply of bows at St. Patrick may be used up. If that happens, we will have no other option than to ask archers to get their own bows. Trust me – it will be worth it!!!
The fee for participation on St. Patrick’s Archery Team varies from year to year. We are constantly striving to drive down the yearly cost to families. It usually ranges from $150 to $200. While a small portion of this fee goes to cover the general equipment that St. Patrick has purchased (bows, targets, arrows, safety nets) and a cool uniform shirt, most of the fee goes toward the registration fee for your Archers to participate in numerous tournaments (last year we participated in approximately 20 tournaments!).
There will be some tournaments that we must qualify to go to, namely State, National, and World, and these are not covered by this fee, but we’ll let you know well in advance if we are able to go. But the fee will cover all of the regular tournaments. The cost of the tournaments is actually what 90% of your participation fee is used for!