Arkansas Sports 360 - ArkansasSports360.com

8/23/2010 at 6:00am

Sports are a natural way of life for residents of the Natural State. Seasons of the year give way to seasons of the sport. Fall fades to winter just like football transitions to basketball. Of course, with spring comes baseball and the seasons continue just like clockwork.

But seasons that are oft forgotten are those of sportsmen, who embrace the “natural” part of Arkansas’ moniker by hunting and fishing all across the state’s beautiful landscape.

Sports have always been around to fill niches in young people’s lives in the state, and diversity in sports selection has only increased as the world becomes more global. So when the Arkansas Activities Association (AAA) sanctioned sports such as bowling, wrestling and cheer, it seems only fitting that quickly following them were the Arkansas Youth Shooting Sports Program and the Arkansas National Archery in the Schools Program.

That’s right: Trap shooting and archery are competitive sports for Arkansas high school students. Instead of shooting for ducks and deer, students across the state are shooting for championships.

The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission has not only started these sports in Arkansas, but has made them wildly successful. And it’s no surprise. They’re catering to one of Arkansas’ greatest passions: hunting.

So how did these programs ever surface?

It all started with the passing of Amendment 75 to the Arkansas Constitution in 1996, which allowed for the commission and other state agencies to collect revenue off a 1/8-cent sales tax, 45 percent of which goes to the commission. That money has funded educational efforts of the commission, whose education division created the two sports programs.

Eventually the pennies added up. Meanwhile, hunter education numbers started to slip.

“We were losing a lot of young people to video games,” Chuck Woodson, the shooting sports coordinator, said. “They’d rather stay inside and shoot robots than shoot ducks.”

The shooting sports program has been around since fall 2006, when Woodson had expectations of 200 student shooters and 20 coaches. What the sport actually initially drew were 918 shooters and 125 coaches.

After four years of competition, the shooting program in 2009-10 had 5,220 shooters and 579 volunteer coaches, making it the largest in the nation.

Talk about exponential growth.

Archery began in October 2008, with more than 18,000 students participating in schools across the state. This past season there were more than 32,000 students involved in archery and 346 schools are expected to have programs. At some schools, almost the entire fourth, fifth and sixth grades participate.

But the programs aren’t just about shooting with bows and bullets. Education is crucial to the programs’ role in developing young sportsmen.

Starts in Classroom

In the shooting sports program, all participants are required to take a hunter education course. The history of firearms, trap shooting and extensive firearm safety are taught to participants. And, just like in any other sport, physical skill sets and proper mechanics are also taught.

“A lot of math and science goes into this to be good at this,” Woodson adds about the shooting sports.

The archery program focuses on mechanics and safety as well, but also adds in aspects of wildlife management.

Still, despite the education aspect, hunting can be seen as an increasingly expensive endeavor. The AGFC has quieted any doubts about that quickly.

“It’s all free,” Woodson said. “Free ammunition, free targets and free coaching.”

The AGFC also provides funding for trap fields and trap machines for the mandatory minimum of 10 practices that each school must have before competing in regional tournaments.

The archery program also features free bows, arrows and targets.

“Everybody’s on a level playing field,” archery coordinator Curtis Gray said. “It doesn’t matter what your socioeconomic status is.”

For parents concerned about the safety of archery, Gray says they shouldn’t worry. “It’s 98 percent safer than ball sports. The only ball sport that’s safer is ping pong.”

Some concerns have emerged about the commission’s endorsement of the sports over the Arkansas Activities Association sanctioning, but both organizations seem to share a mutual respect for each other, saying that all talks have been friendly and cooperative.

“They can do things for the schools that we just don’t have the financial means to do,” Lance Taylor, the AAA executive director, said. “They do an excellent job.”

The commission decided against AAA sanctioning for several reasons, one of which was to include as many participants as possible, not just through schools.

“We didn’t want to limit it to high school people,” Woodson said. “We made sure Boy Scouts, home school [students], 4-H groups and church groups could do it.”

The AAA also places several other restrictions on competition, whereas the AGFC allows for increased interest and participation. The commission programs coordinate junior high championships, allow for scholarships to be won, charge no admission to attend events and even allow schools to compete in regional and national tournaments, something AAA keeps at the state level.

In only two years, the archery program has already had its first world champion. Eagle Mountain Magnet School from Batesville captured the elementary division title at Walt Disney World in Florida in October.

While competition is the short-term goal, Woodson and Gray hope that scholastic participation will lead to lifelong involvement with outdoors-related sports.

“I know from personal conversation that a lot of them hunt together now that never did before,” Woodson said. “You can live anywhere within the state in Arkansas and within 10 minutes get your hands on firearms … This is our way of giving back through that [tax].”

Tagged: Arkansas Youth Shooting Sports Program, Arkansas National Archery, Amendment 75, Chuck Woodson, Curtis Gray, Eagle Mountain Magnet School, Arkansas Game & Fish Commission, Arkansas Activities Association