Archery Club building up its program

In its first full year as a recognized club at the University of South Dakota, the Archery Club is focusing efforts on building up the program.

“We are trying to get our name out there and get people interested,” club secretary Samantha McMahon said. “We have around 20-30 members so far, though.”

McMahon also said the the club is focusing on fundraising.

“One big thing is to work with Lindsay Sparks to get a variation of humans versus zombies,” McMahon said. “It’s just a matter of getting the campus to support the idea as well as staff members.”

While the club hasn’t spent much time practicing this year, when they do, they travel to Yankton to take advantage of the resources and space provided by the National Field Archery Association.

As president of the NFAA and general manager of Yankton Archery Center, Bruce Cull and the NFAA host the World Archery Youth Championships this summer.

Cull said he had many years of experience before taking on the job.

“Before I took over as general manager of the Yankton Archery Center in January 2008, I had already owned a store called Dakota Archery and Outdoor Sports for about 35 years,” Cull said. “So, I came into the position with a lot of experience.”

Rachel Byrd, marketing manager of the NFAA, said the World Archery Youth Championships, which will be held June 6-14, is a huge meeting of archers.

“The tournament will consist of roughly 600 of the top youth archers from over 60 countries worldwide,” Byrd said. “These athletes are between 15 and 20 years old.”

McMahon said while none of the club members will participate in the archery tournament event in Yankton this summer, they are looking to compete in the future.

“We haven’t been practicing really — we are not quite to a competitive level,” she said. “A lot of us don’t have our own equipment, so the Yankton archery center has been great to us, especially about lending us equipment when we do show up to practice and shoot around.”