The Sixth Annual Tennessee National Archery in the Schools Program State Championships will be held Tuesday, April 3 at the Tennessee Miller Coliseum in Murfreesboro.
The NASP State Championships will return to the Miller Coliseum for the third consecutive year and another record field will participate. There will be more than 1,200 students competing with more than 50 schools from across the state represented. The event has seen an increase of almost 900 students over the past four years.
Sponsored by the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, many of the Volunteer State’s best student archers will again participate in this year’s event. The NASP began in Tennessee in 2004 and has seen tremendous growth since its inception.
There will be three divisions. Schools will compete in the elementary, middle school and high school divisions. Awards will be presented to the top team and individual finishers in each division.
On Tuesday, competition will be held in five flights with the first flight to begin at 8:30 a.m. and continuing until the final flight starts at 3:30 p.m. The awards ceremony is expected to begin at 5 p.m. The public is welcome and invited to attend. There is no admission charge.
Van Buren County High School and Bledsoe County Middle School each will be attempting to win their fourth straight titles in their respective divisions. Hickman County Elementary School will be defending its first-ever title that it captured in 2011.
Tennessee began NASP in late 2004 with 12 pilot schools participating in the program. The number of schools has grown to more than 230 that now participate in the program. NASP is a two-week curriculum taught during school that teaches International Style Target Archery.
Each student will shoot 30 arrows, 15 from 10 meters and 15 from 15 meters with a maximum score of 300. The top team and individual in each division automatically receive a bid to compete in the National NASP Tournament to be held in May in Louisville, Ky.
If a school or teacher is interested in starting a NASP program, please contact Don Crawford, Assistant Chief of Information and Education at Don.Crawford@tn.gov or 615 781-6542 or Matt Clarey, Regional Training Coordinator in TWRA Region III at Matt.Clarey@tn.gov or 800 262-6704 or 931 484-9571.