Right on Target: Westonka Archery Program Sees Popularity Explosion

by Becca Heistad
 
A total of 515 young archers gathered at Mound Westonka High School Saturday, Feb. 9, to go for the bullseye at the annual Westonka Open archery tournament. More than 20 schools from across the metro area and central Minnesota participated in the all-day event. 
 
The Westonka Archery Club has approximately 120 students grades K-10 participating this year—possibly the club’s highest enrollment ever, according to Hilltop Primary School physical education specialist and club founder Mike Wallace.
 
The tournament benefitted from the helping hands of MWHS DECA students, who volunteered their time in a variety of ways: setting up for the competition Friday night, helping the archery students keep score, working concessions and assisting with scoring in the computer lab. 

“All DECA students must perform eight hours of community service each year, and this is one of the big events that we do,” DECA advisor Sue Simonson said. “Mike Wallace comes to our monthly DECA meeting and gives the students lessons on how to score and how to help the younger students.” DECA has been involved with the tournament for the past five years.
 
Westonka will also play host to the Minnesota NASP Region III tournament March 8-9 at the high school, which will include around 700 archers from around the state.

Archery at Westonka
Hilltop third grade teacher Craig Schmidt convinced Wallace to starting an archery program at the school eight years ago. “He actually started talking me into it 10 years ago, but it took two years to convince me to try it,” Wallace said. In its first year, the program had about 60 third- and fourth-graders. 
 
When Wallace offered his archers the opportunity to shoot at the state tournament (the only archery tournament offered in Minnesota at the time), he thought they might have a dozen or so interested students. Westonka had 53 out of the only 250 participants from around the state at the tournament that first year.
 
Since then, the program has grown, the students' successes have grown, and the program has become one of the premier National Archery in the Schools Programs (NASP) in Minnesota and in the country.  “No other program in Minnesota has had quantity or quality of archers at our level,” Wallace said. The Westonka Archery Club remains the only Minnesota program to place a team in the top three at the NASP National Tournament.
 
The Westonka archery program can be broken into three parts: the in-school portion, the after school club, and the after school competition shooters. 
 
The Westonka School district has about 350 kids each year learning how to safely and successfully practice archery as a part of the PE curriculum.  All third- and fourth-graders at both Westonka primary schools practice archery during PE. At Hilltop, the second-graders also participate.
 
“I often get asked what the kids learn from [archery] in PE,” Wallace said. “The two biggest things the kids learn are accountability and responsibility. They practice responsibility through the form, techniques and safety procedures of the activity.  They learn and practice accountability once they start shooting.”
 
The archery program reinforces that students are responsible for what happens at the target—whether they get a bullseye or miss entirely. According to Wallace, the students respond to this tactic and internalize the message. “The focus that you will see while they are shooting, from seven-year-olds to 16-year-olds, is impressive,” Wallace said.

The after school archery club was started in 2009 to address the growing interest in archery in the community. “We had kids that wanted to shoot more than just in PE class, so we started an after school program,” Wallace explained. The program started with about 80 participants and has grown to about 120 archers this year.
 
Wallace, Schmidt and adaptive PE teacher Pete Westby run the after school program. They also receive help from parents, who have received training and certification, and from the Westonka Archery Booster group, which helps purchase and maintain equipment and promote the competition piece of the program. Last year, the club introduced a bow lease program. Families with kids who want their own bows to use at practice and tournaments but who cannot make the financial commitment to purchase a bow have the opportunity to lease one from the archery club. 
 
The competitive shooters are the smallest of the three groups, with just over 80 students. Typically, two thirds of the club archers will participate in one tournament each year, and about half will shoot in more than one tournament. “These kids put a terrific face to our school district in our community, metro area, state and nation,” Wallace said. “I've had coaches and parents from schools in others states compliment our kids on the way they shoot and behave while wearing the Westonka Archery name.”
 
Wallace said the competitive shooters are not only good district ambassadors, they are also top-notch shooters. The team has been named elementary state champion five times since 2006 and middle school runner-up three of the last five years. The club has also had one national champion, seven state individual champions, two region individual champions and many region, state and national top-five finishers. All of these champions and teams learned to shoot in the gyms of Westonka.
 
To learn more about the Westonka Archery Club, visit www.westonkaarchery.org.