Student archers, along with coaches, friends and family recently traveled to the NASP (National Archery in the Schools Program) Western National Tournament, located at the Salt Palace Convention Center in Salt Lake City, Utah, for their chance to earn top honors and advance to the Open Championship this summer.

Attending the tournament were 1,252 student archers, from 23 states, which is a 93 percent increase from last year’s 649 attendees. This set a new record for the Western NASP Nationals. For 37 schools, this year’s tournament was the first time they’ve qualified and attended a NASP national tournament.

“It is interesting and exciting that the growth of the Western NASP Nationals is growing in participation and enthusiasm at an almost identical pace as has the Eastern Nationals in Louisville, Kentucky,” said NASP CEO/President Roy Grimes.

Scores from both NASP tournaments, Eastern and Western, will be combined to determine which individuals and teams will advance to the Open Championship, July 25-27 in Nashville, Tennessee, for their chance at winning $175,000 dollars in scholarship money.

NASP staff says these tournaments wouldn’t be possible without the help of many volunteers who spend hours arranging targets and arrows on the range, and taping floors to make sure the set-up aligns with NASP’s safety-specific rules and procedures. NASP sponsors include the Mule Deer Foundation, Hoyt Archery, Mathews and Mission Archery, Easton Technical Products, Whitetails Unlimited, Academy Sports and Outdoors, BCY, Feradyne, EA Promos, Rinehart and American Whitetail Targets. Sponsors provide support, equipment and awards for NASP tournaments.

Half a Million Arrows Fly at 2019 Eastern NASP Nationals

Louisville, Kentucky was inundated with planes, trains, buses and automobiles when approximately 45,000 student archers, coaches, family, friends and other spectators gathered at the Louisville Kentucky Fair and Exposition Center for the 2019 NASP Eastern National Tournament.

This year’s turnout set another new record for the world-renowned archery program with 14,946 archers in attendance. Last year, 14,139 students competed in the event.

Said NASP CEO/President Roy Grimes: "Both the Western and Eastern NASP Nationals held in Salt Lake City and Louisville, just set new participation records with a combined 16,198 shooters. This represents a 10 percent increase over the previous record set in 2017 of 14,788 archers. In fact, it is very rare when the number of student archers attending NASP Nationals doesn't set a new record. Regular record-breaking attendance is due partly to generous program sponsors, who make it possible for new schools to receive equipment grants as they adopt the program. With about 60 percent of schools joining in some type of archery competition, it makes sense that archer numbers qualifying to attend Nationals will continue to grow. Many think NASP National tournament participations will reach 20,000 students in the near future."

Next up for many of these archers, will be the 2019 NASP Open Championship, at the Music City Center in Nashville, Tennessee, on July 25-27. Day one (the 25th) will be a new “Open” competition. NASP Archers who have never competed, or have competed but didn’t make the state or national tournaments, are invited to attend Day 1 of the tournament, which is the Open. Top archers from this first day will earn a spot in the Championship that follows the next 2 days. Archers who attend the Open must be registered by their NASP certified teacher or coach.

Additionally, archers who achieved top honors at this year’s Eastern and Western National Tournaments will also advance to the 2019 NASP Open & Championship in July to participate in the US National Scholarship Shoot-off and a chance at winning a share of $113,000 scholarship cash to use at any post-secondary education institution after graduating high school.

For more information on NASP Tournaments, visit www.nasptournaments.org. For general information on NASP, visit www.naspschools.org.