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AKRON – If you think bow hunting in and around the Akron area, likely your image of the person on the action end of the equation doesn’t have pink hair. Or play Dungeons and Dragons. But moving the stereotypes aside, there are some sharp archers at Tippecanoe Valley High School, and they aren’t what you might think. They are pretty darn good at it.

It was a sleepy Friday morning, much like most other mornings at the high school annex. Kids filing in, mostly anonymously, just going about their business. Brothers Tristen and Tayler Grubbs helped set up some well-loved targets, Dylan Wood helping arrange the quivers where the archers will take aim from 10 yards for roughly 30 minutes. The archery club, overseen by Wes Backus and Jeff Shriver, begins to take form and Backus, without much conversation, blows a whistle one time which is the signal to load the bows, then three once all of the shooters are done to go retrieve their offerings. The club then goes into its practice much like any other sports team, as fluid as a layup line conducted by Bill Patrick, as inquisitive as a golfer trying to read the greens with a bucket of balls spread around the fringe.

“I shoot every night if I don’t have too much homework,” Wood said. “You have to shoot a 270 out of 300 and I got a 273 last year to go to state. This year I shot about the same. I just hope to get top five, there’s going to be a lot of really good ones there. I figure I need about a 280 to 285 to get top five.”

Shriver noted the kids aren’t who he expected to come out for the club when it was introduced two years ago. Only a handful of the two dozen that came out this year have bow hunted in the woods, but none of that outside experience is needed to join the archery club. Shriver and Backus both shared several stories about some of the kids who came in having never held a bow before, let alone knowing any of the terminology. But their want to learn, to be a part of something, and the drive that comes with the intention of mastering a craft, keeping most of the kids coming back, and keeps the instructors on their toes.

“We work with them regardless of if they have a lot of experience with the bow or none,” Shriver said. “The ones who come in here with no experience, you can tell after one day that most of them want to learn how to do it, and they start to get it pretty quickly. We go through the 11 steps of safety, safety is always first here. After the first day, they start to see things. It’s not long after that that most of the kids become highly motivated. Three days a week at 7 a.m., that’s motivation enough for a lot of kids. Especially the ones who aren’t used to training like that on a sports team or in the band.”

Wood, which Shriver playfully dubbed the ‘team captain’ due to his ability and having qualified for the state tournament in bullseye shooting, has just a little different sound to his hits as he practices. As he continues to press on, working on getting his compliment of arrows into the tattered yellow circle of the practice bullseye mark, Wood never loses the grin on his face, a trademark that the coaches have noted is just part of the club’s mantra.

“My friends and I do this because it’s fun,” Wood said. “Some people here, this is all they do. They’re not even in band or anything. Some just play cards in the hallway. But we all have a good time doing this. And it doesn’t take long to figure out how to do it if you haven’t shot a bow before.”

Valley will partake in the 2017 Indiana State NASP/IBO 3-D Challenge Tournament on March 11 at the Indiana State Fairgrounds in Indianapolis. The team reached the state finals after scoring enough points after its January 21 qualifier. Teams have to meet the qualifying standard in a period between Jan. 1 and Feb. 12. Valley, which has been practicing three mornings a week since September, will take a school-sponsored trip to Wabash on March 9 to Bass and Bucks, where they will get their first work on 3-D targets.

“The biggest takeaway is to offer as many programs to get as many kids involved as possible,” stated Tippecanoe Valley High School principal Dr. Michael Bendicsen from his office Friday morning. “The archery program is another way to include as many kids and their parents. Some don’t do anything else. But they show up, and their parents bring them, which shows the support we want in a club like archery. Kudos to Wes and Jeff for stepping up and running with this.”

Wood will compete with the team in the 3-D Challenge as well as the Bullseye Tournament which will also be held on site the same day. Valley is starting their shootin

g at approximately 8:40 a.m., and Wood will work the bullseyes sometime before noon. Valley’s team members are Sarah Cavender, Gabby Enyart, Brendon Grubbs, Tayler Grubbs, Tristen Grubbs, Ethan Harger, Elijah Holder, David Krebs, Jordan Krotke, Jarvis Mort, McKenzie Murphy, Brant Norris and Wood.

“We have kids who just want to be part of something, and this has become that for them,” Backus said. “Some of them understand the commitment, others see what it takes and they learn.”

Both coaches Backus and Shriver noted if anyone is interested in helping support the program to contact them at the high school or if students are interested in joining, the club is free to enter and there is no required equipment needed to be purchased.