ATA Compiles Bowhunter Numbers Nationwide
The Archery Trade Association compiled a complete set of state bowhunter participation numbers and learned America has more than 3.7 million licensed bowhunters.
The ATA worked with the National Deer Association and state wildlife agencies to identify the number of licensed residents in each state who participated in hunting with a bow and arrow during the 2021-22 season. This is the first time the ATA or any other entity put together bowhunting-specific participation totals for all 50 states, further providing an accurate number of nationwide constituents using archery equipment.
“This is the most reliable single-source of bowhunting participation data generated to date,” said Jeff Poole, ATA president and CEO. “We are pleased to share this information and know the data serves as a benchmark to inspire growth nationwide.”
The data is available in the ATA article “2021 State-by-State Hunting Data, 3.7 Million Bowhunters in America” along with harvest statistics for each state. The ATA also created a downloadable one-sheet document so members can easily read and compare state bowhunter numbers.
Contact Allison Jasper, senior director of marketing and communications, at allisonjasper@archerytrade.org or (507) 233-8136 with questions.
2023 NASP Scholarship Sponsors
The National Archery in the Schools Program is poised to begin the 2023 NASP National Tournament series. An exciting part of these national events has become the thousands of scholarship dollars awarded to student-archers. NASP recently announced plans for the 2023 tournament season in a February press release.
NASP scholarship sponsors enable the tournament series to include individual scholarships, team scholarships, and random scholarships. Through their generosity, these sponsors promote the educational focus of NASP through an emphasis on post-secondary education and training.
“NASP scholarship sponsors help us stress the importance of post-secondary decisions for our participants,” said NASP President Tommy Floyd. “We love the idea of a student turning their passion for archery into an opportunity to expand educational options down the road. We want to thank the following scholarship sponsors for their continued support to help make 2023 a great year for NASP student archers.”
- Mathews Archery Inc.
- Mission Archery Inc.
- Brennan Industries Inc.
- Easton Technical Products
- Morrell Targets
- Avient Corporation
- FeraDyne Outdoors
- GSM Outdoors
- BCY Fibers
- National Bowhunter Education Foundation
- Lancaster Archery Supply
- Whitetails Unlimited
- Saunders Archery
- NEET Products
- EA Promos
- KY Exposition Center & Louisville Tourism
Click here to learn more about bringing NASP to your school. Visit www.naspschools.org to learn more about NASP, or email Dr. Tommy Floyd at: Tommy.floyd@naspschools.org
Lancaster Archery Foundation Gives Scholarships to Texas A&M
The Lancaster Archery Foundation provided Texas A&M University with $32,000 to award as scholarships to eight student-archer athletes for 2023.
Each student will receive $4,000 to put toward their 2023 tuition fees for the university located in College Station, Texas.
The scholarship money alone will help these eight student-archer athletes pay for their education at Texas A&M. Additionally, being scholarship athletes allows these students to take advantage of substantial tuition breaks that will save them a combined total of over $300,000 in tuition fees.
A stipulation of the scholarship funds provided by the Lancaster Archery Foundation is that recipients must participate in the university’s competitive archery program. Texas A&M has one of the strongest archery teams in the country, having won 22 national championships since 1996.
Providing scholarships to collegiate archers is at the core of the Lancaster Archery Foundation’s mission of “providing resources to grow, educate and develop athletes in competitive archery.”
“It’s a privilege for the foundation to be able to help these young people continue their education at the university level, while also continuing their dedication to competitive archery,” said Rob Kaufhold, president of the Lancaster Archery Foundation Board of Directors. “We want to see student-archer athletes develop the skills they need to be successful in life and in archery.”
Based in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, the Lancaster Archery Foundation is a nonprofit organization dedicated to expand, develop and promote 3-D and target archery to help people improve their confidence, discipline and leadership skills through participation in competitive archery.
For more information on how you can donate toward the foundation’s scholarship initiatives, visit lancasterarcheryfoundation.org.
NASP and S3DA Partner to Benefit St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital
Two of the most popular youth archery organizations, the National Archery in the Schools Program (NASP) and Scholastic 3-D Archery (S3DA), recently announced plans to host a joint fundraiser to support St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital during April 2023. Leaders for both of these growing archery organizations met at the 2023 ATA Trade Show to discuss how they might collaborate, and the idea was born.
NASP President Dr. Tommy Floyd said, “Holly and I agreed that it was time to bring both S3DA and NASP together. We discussed how the joining of our programs together for a common cause could be very powerful, and perhaps could become an example for other shooting sports organizations to get on board with us in the future. Both organizations involve passionate people, and we believe that there will be just as much passion about helping the children of St. Jude. We are both excited for this long needed partnership, and plan to invite all NASP schools to participate in the month of April.”
S3DA Executive Director Holly Helton said, “We’re very excited to work alongside the National Archery in the Schools Program to promote youth archery in all forms. It seems to be a common misconception that youth can do only one or the other, and that we are somehow competitors in the youth archery realm. S3DA and NASP complement each other well, with many archers finding success in both competition programs, as well as excelling in the S3DA conservation initiative. We can’t wait to see what this collaboration garners for the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and encourage all S3DA teams to participate and have fun in the process.”
For the upcoming virtual tournament event, there will be no cost to enter, however, donations via the tournament website are encouraged. Donations may be made in the name of the school or team by going to the tournament website address listed below for the corresponding organization. The top fundraising schools or teams, from both programs, will be recognized for their efforts, and several NASP and S3DA sponsors such as Morrell Targets, Easton Technical Products, and Delta McKenzie Targets have gotten onboard to offer prizes for the top donating schools or teams.
Participating NASP archers will shoot one traditional Bullseye round for score. They will shoot 15 arrows at 10 meters, and 15 arrows at 15 meters. A total of 30 arrows and possible score of 300. Coaches are encouraged to use the NASP Portal App to score their archers.
NASP schools can register by clicking here. Participating S3DA archers will shoot a single 30-arrow indoor round as per the normal S3DA published rules. S3DA teams can participate by clicking here.
Dr. Tommy Floyd continued by saying, “This project is a good example of what can happen when like-minded, passionate people get together to benefit those in need. NASP and S3DA are not only committed to growing the sport of archery, and the success of the shooting sports, but we're committed to helping the children and families of St. Jude – and we are excited to do so together. NASP and S3DA archers uniting to change lives one arrow at a time!”
University of the Cumberlands Wins Team Title
After a nervy wait stretching out over a couple of weekends, the University of the Cumberlands recently captured the USA Archery Indoor Nationals Collegiate Overall Team title, narrowly defeating Texas A&M University (TAMU).
Inside the last 12 months, the Cumberlands Patriots have swept victory in the USA Archery Collegiate Target Nationals and the USA Archery Collegiate 3D Nationals, and can now add the Indoor Nationals Collegiate Overall Team title to that impressive list.
But this latest success was not without its moments, with the Cumberlands shooting their tournament in early February. They had to watch and wait as other results came in from across the country before knowing whether they had done enough.
Head coach of the Cumberlands is Kris Strebek. He said, “Every weekend I was looking at Between Ends, trying to see if our scores were going to hold up. For me it was a little bit stressful. The kids didn’t really pay attention to it too much.”
Ultimately, they had done enough, but it was so close, finishing as they did just ahead of TAMU. Cumberlands totaled 168 points, with their rivals managing 167.5. University of Pikeville finished third.
“Sometimes when that last weekend got there it was good that we’d already put up our scores”, Strebek added. “But it was bad because we couldn’t do anything about somebody else putting up scores. But overall it was a huge relief when everything came out.”
This is the first year USA Archery has introduced Collegiate Team Awards to Indoor Nationals. Individual results from all Indoor Nationals locations were used to determine Collegiate Team results.
Click here to learn more about USA Archery collegiate events. For more information on the Collegiate Archery Program, contact USA Archery at collegearchery@usarchery.org.
