ELPS Archery Shoots for the Stars

“Kids who need a niche will find me.” That’s what physical education teacher Casey Bain said, who coaches and started teaching archery in East Lansing Public Schools.

Bain spent 17 years teaching in the classroom at Marble Elementary School, but looking for a change of pace and having always been active person, she transitioned to the gym in 2010.

Bain said she was introduced to archery after a colleague gave her the idea. She started the program as quickly as she could.

Today, the target for the program keeps moving with 70 archers across Marble Elementary, MacDonald Middle School, and East Lansing High School. Archers competed in tournaments ranging from states in 2015 and 2016, to nationals in 2017 and 2018, and to the world championship—with two archers qualifying in 2019 and two this year.

So how has the program developed and how has it weathered the challenges of the pandemic and a very different season?

The program is in the National Archery in the Schools Program (NASP) organization, which requires archery to be taught in public schools in order to participate in NASP competitions.

Bain said she started the East Lansing chapter with 11 fourth- and fifth-graders at Marble Elementary in 2015-2016 season. When those students wanted to continue in middle school, Bain said she would find a way. When eighth-graders wanted to continue in high school, she made it happen by finding willing teachers there.

“So our program is growing in numbers, but we’re also, you know, eventually, we’re going to be a lot stronger as our coaches get stronger in coaching and as our kids come to the program with that background as the wave rides up so to speak,” Bain said.

Bain said the elementary team has about 24 to 30 students for a typical season. The middle school team has “blown up” from 10 to 45 archers, and the entire elementary and middle school team qualified for states in 2019. She said high school team is still growing – it currently has seven players – as word is spreading.

“Kids who need a niche will find me,” Bain said. “They’ll find this team because there are so many people out there that are not mainstream sport kids…They do not want contact sports, but this provides a niche. It provides a team, a sense of belonging. It’s individually, yet team oriented. It’s a way to just set goals and just work toward feeling good about something.”

Bain said she is the organizer of practices and tournaments; she does the communication and serves as the treasurer. The other big part of the team’s success is the role of parent volunteers who help with one-on-one coaching.

Robert Hartley is a parent volunteer in the program with a son on the middle school team. He said it is great to see archers be successful and the archery program expanding, adding that the East Lansing team wants to help other programs grow.

“So I think probably the next milestone for our program is to host our own event here in East Lansing, bringing in archers from other communities,” Hartley said. “I mean that would help us not only for attracting more archers to grow the team, but to help recruit additional volunteers to staff the event, to raise money for equipment, to repay those surrounding communities that have hosted us for events in the past.”

Hartley said he has an archery background that helps him coach, but plenty of students and families do not have backgrounds. Hartley said archery is “a sport that’s not dependent on size or strength, so individuals can compete on equal footing.”

For a non-pandemic year, practice is held three days a week, and students come during specified times. Bain is there from about 3:45 p.m. until 7:00  or 7:30 p.m. and holds two to four practices, depending on how many students attend.

Bain said Marble’s gym is small, holding 11 targets maximum, with two students per target rotating.

“That’s 12 hours of volunteer time. That is just a lot of time commitment for me, plus the Saturday tournaments,” Bain said. “I love it, and that’s why I do it, I mean it’s for the kids. I can’t see another way around it.”

Due to Covid-19, several adjustments were made to the program. Bain said students only had a month to practice before the state tournament in March, and roughly 40 archers participated. She said she was grateful the superintendent allowed the team to practice, unlike in other districts, and said for those students that wanted to return to school in a safe environment, it was beneficial. One practice was also held outdoors.

Bain said the Portage Central and Howell tournaments were in-person, so students who were not comfortable participated virtually at Marble, and then the scores were sent over. This did create more long days for her, as she had to drive between locations, but long tournaments are nothing new for her.

There was some relearning with wearing masks, but Bain said students were “thrilled” to be able to shoot. NASP requires 10 hours of teaching, so she did virtual lessons on Zoom, and students practiced with a string bow.

Bain said she is proud of the archers, especially those who go up against opponents with years of experience. She said students can be paired with those several grades and sizes bigger, so the kindness among archers is neat to see.

“It’s in their heart why they’re doing this. Nobody’s forcing them to do this tournament. Nobody’s forced them to do anything. So I love the spirit. We call it, like the ‘spirit of an archer,’ that you know you’re a good person inside, and you’re good archer or you’re growing to be a good archer in terms of skill.”

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