Rylie Keagy

Gym classes plan to bring archery back to the school as a way to form a competitive team in the future.

Physical education classes are planning to bring back archery. In the old B building basement, there was an archery range when teacher Thomas Palfey student taught in 1992 and years prior. Then, the classes used a recall bow but now, they use a compound bow. 

The gym teachers trained through videos during inservice on Jan. 24 and were required to take a 51 question test following. 

On Feb. 14 inservice, gym teachers will head to Penn Lincoln Elementary’s gym to practice shooting with the compound bow and arrows. The National Archery in Schools Program (NASP) will send helpers for the teachers to walk them through step-by-step, just like the videos they watched. 

It will be like an archery range, there will be visuals and cones out for the kids to stand behind. There are whistle blows that mean certain things, for example if someone drops their arrow. 

“You have to follow many rules and there’s a whistle blow for each step,” physical education teacher Megan Yingling said. “The first step is to go up to the line, second will be drawing the arrow, third is to shoot the arrow, fourth whistle everyone grabs their arrow and the fifth whistle is only blown if there is an emergency.”

Gym teacher Brandon Lingenfelter did a poll with his eighth period class of who has shot a bow and arrow. Out of 25 students, only five have shot with a bow and arrow. 

“It’ll be a great opportunity and refreshing for students since they are used to the same activities every week,” Lingenfelter said. 

The gym teachers’ main goal is to give students the opportunity to get off of screens and try something new. 

“I think it would be the perfect activity in the day and age of phones because it takes total concentration,” Palfey said. 

“Some kids may have never had the opportunity to try and maybe never will so it’s good for them to try and realize they could be really good at it,” Yingling said.

The goal is to create an archery team that will compete in an official capacity. Recently there was an archery competition at the Blair County Convention Center that held 17 different schools and about 400 archers.

“I know with our school being big we could get a large diverse group of people that will like it, any opportunity that you have to include more people in your school is important,” Palfey said.