Large amount of archers qualify for state

Nodaway Valley and Orient-Macksburg have a high number of participants on their archery teams going to shoot at the state tournament this weekend, held in the Jacobsen Building at the Iowa State Fairgrounds in Des Moines.

Nodaway Valley has qualified 21 individuals and two teams for state in one or more categories while Orient-Macksburg has qualified 12 individuals.

The two categories for archery are bullseye and 3D. The former has archers shooting at a target from two different distances while 3D involves shooting at various animal targets.

NV archery coach Bill Newbury, who coaches with a host of others, said that this has been a very strong year for the archery program. They began the season with approximately 80 on the team.

“We’ve been having a very good season,” Newbury said. “The number of kids we have qualified for state tells me the kids are doing really good. There’s a lot of interest in it. There’s a lot of kids, like we’ve said in the past, who don’t have to be the strongest, the tallest, the biggest, they just have to pay attention to detail and have fun.”

One of Orient-Macksburg’s coaches, Jeff Hanscom, said that the Bulldogs feel especially proud to have the number of state qualifiers that they do. The improvement they’ve seen throughout their team of 22 has been what has stood out.

“Whether they’re new or are old archers coming back, they’ve all improved so much throughout the year that it has been really good,” Hanscom said.

Archers and their teams can qualify for the state tournament if they post a qualifying score at any time throughout the season, but they have to do so twice to get in. For instance, Hanscom said the Bulldogs, who compete at the high school level with their entire group because of overall low numbers, were three points away once from a qualifying score this year.

Newbury said it is fun to see archers qualify for state throughout the season, and then others also want to do it.

“Everybody kind of feeds off each other, and it’s close knit and a family. Everybody wants everybody to do well. They stand beside each other and help each other out as best as they can,” Newbury said. “Even for the coaches, it’s a competitive nature from school to school. All the coaches get along, but it’s the same thing as the kids: we get a little competitive and want to do our best.”

While results at the state shoot determine who reaches nationals, Newbury wants his archers to focus on the moment they’re in and enjoy the state tournament first, because qualifying for state is a very big accomplishment.

Hanscom said he has the same approach, however he would like to see Orient-Macksburg get a nationals qualifier again. The Bulldogs had one in Brysen Shinn during COVID-19, however he didn’t get to experience a usual nationals tournament like he would have in other years, Hanscom said.

Along with its middle school bullseye team, the following individual archers are qualified for state from Nodaway Valley in bullseye: Avery Goetz, Ashby Melton, Abygail Scovel, Beau Antisdel, Dominic Breheny, Everett Ehler, Kaleb Erickson, Myles Fisher, Oliver Freeland, Lilly Hauf, Tyson Hauf, Cobin Hubenka, Bentley Miller, Nora Newbury, Finn Thompson, Lincoln VanHorn, Collin Akers, Shannon Newbury and Abbigail Zenor.

Along with its middle school 3D team, the following individual archers are qualified for state from Nodaway Valley in 3D: Avery Goetz, Cambria Richardson, Abygail Scovel, Beau Antisdel, Dominic Breheny, Everett Ehler, Lilly Hauf, Tyson Hauf, Cobin Hubenka, Nora Newbury, Lyrick Schwartz, Finn Thompson, Lincoln Van Horn and Collin Akers.

Orient-Macksburg archers going to state include Rogue Paxton, Harlea Hanscom and Brailee Shinn in bullseye, Dexter Strauss in 3D and Eli Campbell, Myka Hanscom, Brysen Shinn, Amber Campbell, Caleb Heinz, Blaise Fry, Marissa Cass and Lakota Whitney in both.