Archery Program Aims High In Schools Nationwide

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- When Gail Whitcomb formed the archery team at Princeton High School five years ago, they had 13 kids. Now they've got 70.

"Everybody can do it. It doesn't matter how big, how tall, how short," Whitcomb said. "It's not an expensive sport to get into."

Anna Whitcomb says it's a pretty inclusive, equalizing sport, too.

"You can have somebody who's never shot a bow before become a pro in a couple weeks, because they're into it," she said.

This is all part of the National Archery in Schools Program -- a program that's not a typical after-school activity. Gail Whitcomb says each school teaches it during the day, usually during physical education classes, but the program sometimes finds it way into other programs, like science or even reading.

"We did it for the 6th grade class here in town, did the Hunger Games book," Gail Whitcomb said.

Just like at Princeton, the program's popularity is booming nationwide. Some 2.3 million kids are participating across 47 states.

It's in more than 400 schools in Minnesota, with nearly 200,000 students, ranging in age from high school to as young as five years old, like Landon Donais. When matched up with WCCO's David McCoy, Landon took the crown.

Landon's far from the only stellar shooter at Princeton -- the high school boasts several national champs.

"This is based off of a 300 score, and some of these kids are shooting in the upper 290s," Coach Gail Whitcomb said. "Without sights, without releases, all fingers. You know, this is pretty dang good."

Since they all use the same Genesis bows, Anna Whitcomb says it really is the archer who gets to take all the credit.

"There's nobody can get upset that, 'oh, that's why they beat me, because they have a better bow than me.' " she said. "Everybody's equal."