Centerville Archery Club targets good sportsmanship
DAYTON, Ohio — The Centerville High School (CHS) Archery Club has been in existence for some time, led by Penny Manfredi.
The pandemic temporarily put a damper on organized sports, including the CHS Archery Club. With the addition of two certified Scholastic 3D Archery (S3DA) coaches, Brian Cline and Adam Cunigan, as well as the assistance of Penny and fellow school employee Casey Lawrence, the club was rejuvenated in late 2022.
The CHS Archery Club hit the ground running, with indoor target season.
Thanks to a partnership with the Washington Township RecPlex, experienced and brand new archers were able to explore different disciplines, including barebow, Olympic recurve and pins (hunter class).
We had our first indoor state tournament, with a great turnout of over 70% of the team. Three of our archers made the podium. Our next tournament was S3DA Indoor Nationals in Owensboro, Kentucky. We again had around 70% of the team show up and put some very impressive scores on the board.
We are now in outdoor season, which entails 3D target archery: targeting foam animals at different yardages and terrains. This is probably our favorite season, because we can be outdoors (away from electronics) and just enjoying the sport and weather.
We are currently practicing at Oak Grove Park’s archery range, where we set up five 3D targets. We have also partnered with HotShots Archery Academy, for additional practices throughout the week at The Fields–Moraine Sports Complex. Twice weekly HotShots Archery Academy sets up a course with 10 3D targets, allowing our devoted CHS archers to get more practice time in.
We are a competitive team—there is no doubt about it—but we also like to have fun. At practices you will hear the team joking around and “busting each other’s chops,” but it is all in good nature. There isn’t a person on the team who wouldn’t drop everything to help another teammate. Good sportsmanship is fundamental to our program.
Archery is a fantastic individual sport that has a team feel. One of our core beliefs is that you are not competing against anyone but yourself. You are trying to be better than you were yesterday. As long as you keep improving, the scores will come.
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