(KMOX) - Over 100,000 Missouri students participate in archery at school. Eric Edwards is a Program Coordinator with the Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC), he says 763 Missouri schools currently have archery as a part of their schools curriculum.
“It’s not just physical eduction classes teaching archery," Edwards says. "I was surprised to see geometry and algebra having an archery unit as well.”
Math and physics can be used to get a bullseye as young archers learn how angles, weight and their bodies affect the arrow hitting the target. Edwards said about 51% of archery classes are part of the school's physical education curriculum and the rest are incorporated into other class units. It's up to the teacher and how they wish to incorporate it in their curriculum.
He said students can also compete in state and local competitions, however, this year's state competition was cancelled due to the pandemic. They were planning on having around 5,500 students compete in Branson this past year.
Archery, despite involving arrows propelling through the air, has just slightly more injuries than bowling. According to the Journal of Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness the overall injury rate is just over four incidents per 10,000 participants age 6 and over. This puts archery as one of the safer extracurricular activities.
The sport has grown in popularity. It started in 2003 by our neighbor state of Kentucky. Edwards said it’s now in 47 states and 12 countries.
"It started as a way to keep kids in school. Kentucky had a high drop out rate, so they started the archery program."
Kentucky's drop out rate has gone down since the introduction of archery, however other factors could be at play. The Missouri Department of Conservation states that archery programs can help school attendance as well.
As for getting a program going in a school. Edwards said MDC trains instructors at no cost and offers rebates for equipment, whether the school is public, private or homeschool. There's an interactive map on the MDC website that shows what schools have archery programs.
He says the startup expense is around $3,000 dollars for a basic kit and MDC provides a $1,500 dollar rebate for schools enrolling in the program.
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