News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Upperman Middle School Archery Club participated in its first event this week, as the work begins to build the new extra curricular offering.
Athletic Director Dustin Williams said he hopes the club can do a lot more in the future. Williams said Upperman would compete against other middle schools in a club-type setting. He said he eventually wants to see the program as a sanctioned sport.
“As the continuation grows more excitement to get this into a sanctioned sport where we can compete,” Williams said. “You know, TMSAA offers archery as well. So were excited to see where its at right now but kind of where it can go. The future’s kinda wide open.”
Williams said the school was approached by a group who had recently instituted an archery program at Sycamore Elementary. Williams said the funding for the project came from grants and pulling together resources.
“Our high school had a bunch of older material as well and some of that was new that had never been used before that was just sitting there being unused, So we just kind of went about it like that as far as what we can do and kind of getting it anywhere we could,” Williams said. “It was actually a littler easier than anticipated to get it off the ground from a financial stand point.”
Williams said there is a lot of interest among the students for archery. He said it is important to offer many alternative clubs and sports outside of the more traditional basketball and football.
“We’re excited,” Williams said. “We’re just trying to offer as much as we can here at the middle school as far as the sports and the arts just to give people a lane to enjoy what they enjoy doing.”
Williams said the next step will be to open up the program to younger students. Right now the club is only for fifth graders.
“We’ve received quite a bit of interest in it,” Williams said. “So we then are going to hopefully eventually open it up to where all grade levels here at Upperman Middle School can participate in our Archery Club if they want to.”
