STURGIS — The Sturgis archery club has had a very successful 2022/2023 archery season. The club has 18 archers with members aged from 7 to 15 years old.
“We are proud to say that in a male-dominant sport our four senior archers are female and have returned for the third or fourth year so far. The young archers are well on their way in the club- designed feathers program and have shown us that persistence pays off, and have now advanced to shooting with the junior line up,” stated Billiejoe Townsend, representative.
Each and every archer has progressed in great strides this year with many great scores, badges and feathers to prove it. They have focused on beating their personal best, time after time. Nine of the archers have received at least one badge so far and a couple have received five or more.
A badge is received once the archer gets a specific score verified by the coach and the provincial archery association. The feather program is for younger members as an incentive and reward for their determination and new skills learned.
“As always our couches have been busy striving for more. Coach Linda Westermann will be partaking in level two coach training and coach Dan Johnson is currently working on his coach certifications as well,” stated Townsend.
The Endeavour range has had an abundance of interest and activities aside from the Saturday morning junior archers. This includes an adult archer shoot every Saturday at 2 p.m., the club-hosted introduction to archery workshop in the fall, and an introduction to archery class this winter with some local students from the Endeavour and surrounding community.
Anticipation is growing for the upcoming SAA JOP Championships in April and the year-end windup BBQ/outdoor 3D shoot in Archerwell in mid-May.
“On behalf of the members of the Sturgis Archery Club, we would like to extend our gratitude to the coaches, Linda Westermann and Dan Johnson for all their dedication and hard work. They have instilled their passion and enthusiasm for archery into each member, encouraging them to try their best each and every class, which has provided them with growth in their skill sets and confidence. We would also like to send out a thank you to everyone that purchased tickets for our Christmas raffle, making it a big success. Many thanks to Fallyn Oxley for taking our club photo. And a big thank you to Tween Lake Feeds for their donation towards new club shirts.
“It’s fantastic to see new faces and archers throughout the season and hopefully the passion for archery will continue to grow in our area. And as this archery season soon comes to an end, we would like to welcome anyone with interest for the 2023/2024 archery season to please reach out to us at [email protected] with any questions you may have or for future registration,” concluded Townsend.
