Archery team competes at nationals

The archery team at Helen Morgan School ranked 17th of 34 in the National Archery in the Schools Program (NASP) Championship in Daytona Beach, Fla., on June 6-8.

A team of 17 students took part in that event.

The program was established two years ago, and the team has grown rapidly in size and accomplishments.

More than 200 students tried out for the 2024 team.

NASP sets a limit to 24 archers per team, so the Sparta coaches created a second team, giving 40 students the opportunity to compete.

With last year’s fifth-graders leaving Helen Morgan, coaches expanded the program to the middle school.

Sparta Middle School’s roster consists of 24 archers.

At NASP state 3D tournament, Natalie Hannum won first place in the girls middle school division and top overall female for elementary, middle school and high school archers in New Jersey.

PE curriculum

Fourth-graders are introduced to archery in the physical education curriculum, so all students know the basics of the sport and the safety rules and precautions.

“These kids, they all know exactly what to do. They set up the range,” said coach Lillian Farrell, a longtime Sparta resident and certified archery coach.

“The training for this is very serious; the kids will attest to the fact that it’s absolutely no nonsense because safety is the absolute No. 1 priority. So there are rules for pretty much everything.”

To prepare for competitions, students practice shooting at different types of targets.

Farrell explains, “There’s two different tournaments: there’s a bullseye tournament and there’s a 3D, which are the animal targets. So for the state of New Jersey last year, we did the bullseye tournament and we won. ... Then we did the 3D tournament and we won that as well. So our first year competing in states, we were dual state champs for New Jersey.”

The team’s success didn’t stop there.

After winning states, the team was qualified to compete in early May in Louisville, Ky., for Eastern Nationals. There the team scored so well that they qualified for nationals in Florida.

’Resetting your mind’

AJ Angor, a softball and archery coach, compared his experiences in the two sports.

“I’ve coached for a long time. So this was different. ... So I was coaching high school softball competitively. I coached college softball the last couple years before my daughters were born. And then to come all the way back down to literally teaching them from the beginning was like ... it’s like resetting your mind.”

While he hadn’t had much experience in archery before volunteering for the program, the sport reminded him of his family.

“When I worked for the Army at Picatinny, they had a range there, so we brought the kids down to summer camp like a couple times. My dad was a big outdoorsman hunter, that sort of stuff ... so while I had never really shot, it always reminded me of going out into the woods with my dad.”

He added, “The archery program here just blew up. I would not have imagined how far this program has come ... . And the students just love it.”

Helen Morgan Principal Douglas Layman also is impressed with the program’s growth and success.

“When Mr. Angor and I discussed bringing archery to Helen Morgan School three years ago, never in our wildest dreams did we think that we would be sending kids to national tournaments and achieving prizes and awards like they have in such a quick amount of time.

“That’s a testament to the devotion of the coaches, who are here every morning and staying late every afternoon, and the parents supporting their kids and their efforts as athletes. It’s been a really fun ride as a principal to watch and experience the growth of these students and the success that they have achieved.”

‘Doing really well’

Bade Duru, a fourth-grader at Helen Morgan, said she first tried archery in her PE class.

“Then I realized that I was doing really well in it so there were tryouts and I decided I wanted to try out.”

Her favorite part of archery is “hanging out with my friends and just improving.”

Asked about the future of the program, Farrell said, “Eventually our goal is to have teams throughout the district because we have eighth-graders now that are going on to the high school that want to do it there now that we formed the middle school time this year.”

Farrell touched became an archer in high school. “I just felt a passion for it. I fell in love with it. I knew it was something that I would want to do again.”

She didn’t pursue the sport while studying nursing.

“As a coach, I feel the same passion that I felt back then ... and when I took my full-day training to become certified as a coach, I could see a bigger picture from that day of what I wanted to do with it in terms of working with students, building their confidence, helping them to focus. and teaching them how to live in the moment. Teaching them how each arrow is a new opportunity.”