In May, news came out of the National Archery in Schools Program national championship in Louisville that the Trigg County High School archery team finished in first place among 192 high school teams that competed. They are known as the Trigg County Arrowcats and this isn't their first national championship. On Sounds Good, Kate Lochte speaks with their coach, Tom Patterson, about the team's continuing success with NASP competition.
The program has been going for about 12 years now at Trigg County High School, one of the original pilot schools established in the nation. There are now roughly 2.4 million kids involved in NASP in the United States at different levels of education and the program has also expanded internationally. Patterson says the majority of his students have been coached for seven or eight years.
To be a successful archer, the key is discipline and concentration. In competitions, they need to shoot 30 scorable arrows, 40 arrows total. They start at 10 meters and have a few warm up shots, then 15 meters with a few warm up shots. The first arrow is just as important as that last arrow and vice versa, he says. One of his students shot the first ever state-level perfect 300 at a tournament in Kansas. This is extremely difficult, Patterson says. To do this, you need to hit 10 arrows in an inch and a half circle against your opponent who is also aiming at the same target. While your shot can be perfect, arrows can bounce out of this space.
Much of the skill comes in concentration, the mental game. Patterson says he makes his students believe they are undefeatable. Many of his students enjoy bow fishing Asian carp at the lakes and others bow hunt or turkey hunt. His archers aren't allowed to bow fish until after the national tournament because you need to shoot fast to hit that quick target and snap shooting like that is the worst thing to do when shooting a flat target in an archery range, where taking your time is essential.
A Honeywell engineer, Tom Patterson also coaches the Trigg County Arrowcats team, reigning national champions in the National Archery in the Schools Program. He says that the program's a life-changer for some participants, including one young woman whose archery and academic successes may qualify her for a job in his area, despite early challenges in her life.
