Archery State Tournament Explained by Competitor

The Northwest Archery Team demonstrated their archery skills all day on February 1, 2023, during a statewide tournament at South Point Hotel and Casino.

During the course of the school year, the archery team meets every week to prepare for tournaments at this level. Senior competitors Jason Adams and Thaddeus Nance discuss their competition performance.

“Every school in the state of Nevada that has an archery club goes and competes at this tournament to score the most amount of points for their team,” Nance explains.

To ensure that the Northwest team gets the most amount of points possible, the archery club practices every week after school to perform practice rounds.

“Every Tuesday, the archery club meets in the gym after school to perform three practice rounds with each round being from a different distance,” Nance explains. “We get five arrows per round and shoot from distances of five meters, 10 meters, and 15 meters.”

Even though the team practices weekly for competitions, they still get nervous going against people from different schools.

“I wasn’t nervous when watching others but things changed whenever it was my time to go,” Adams says. “I was nervous being in the moment.”

Despite the nervousness the team was feeling, they would still support each other to ease those feelings.

“During the competition, we would cheer each other on,” Adams explains. “After each round, we would check each other’s scores as well as give each other helpful feedback on how to improve our performance.”

After the competition, competitors were able to explore South Point and connect with their fellow teammates.

“Although we weren’t able to freely roam the casino with all of us being underage, we were able to eat at the casino’s buffet,” Nance explains.

At the end of the day, competitions aren’t about winning. Competitions are about improving skills and connecting with teammates.

“In terms of my performance, I could’ve done better because my personal score wasn’t high enough for my expectations,” Adams explains. “However, I will take this experience and learn from it to improve my skills for the future.”