Students at DeKalb West School are participating in the National Archery in the Schools Program (NASP) for the second year, and DeKalb Middle students may soon have the same opportunity.
NASP is a joint venture between state departments of education and wildlife. Several archery equipment manufacturers and organizations are also partners. The program promotes student education, physical education and participation in the life long sport of Archery. The program’s focus is to provide International Style Target Archery training for physical education classes in grades 4-12.
The course is being taught by Coach Ricky Hendrix at DWS. Hendrix participated in an eight-hour NASP training course to become a certified archery instructor before beginning the class. The training is conducted by the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency.
The program is a two-to-eight-week archery course designed to teach international style target archery. The students shoot at bulls-eye targets placed in front of an arrow resistant net in their gymnasium.
The core content covers archery history, safety, technique, equipment, mental concentration, core strengthening, physical fitness and self-improvement which is necessary in order to participate in and enjoy the sport of archery as a lifetime activity. The safety and instructional guidelines were adopted from the National Archery Association (NAA) and the National Field Archery Association (NFAA).
In this curriculum are reading and writing assignments, physics and science projects, history lessons and other essential scholastic achievements that turn a simple recreational activity into a fun and powerful learning experience. A $1,000 reimbursable grant is offered to the schools to help with the funding of the archery kit.
NASP was launched in Tennessee in October 2004 and 265 schools from across the state are now participating. Tennessee was the 17th state to join the program. At this time there are 48 U.S. states, Australia, Mexico and Nova Scotia/Canada participating in the program with other states and countries (Japan, parts of Europe) coming on board each month.
The TWRA conducts a Tennessee State NASP tournament each year and the winners of each of the three divisions (elementary 4-6 grade, Jr. High 7-8 grade, High School 9-12 grade) and top males and females get an automatic bid to compete at the National Tournament, which is held in Louisville, KY.
Educators are reporting that NASP "engages the unengaged" and inspires students to greater achievement in school. As far as safety is concerned, archery is safer than all ball sports except table tennis and extra insurance is not required by the schools to teach archery.
