Renee Marler
Renee@CedarbrookMedia.com
The first year Prosper Archery Team scored high enough at each of the local, State and National competitions, that they qualified to compete against 65 other middle school teams at the National Archery in the Schools Programs (NASP) Worlds tournament in Orlando, Florida last week. Prosper brought 18 of the 3600 archers in the competition.
Andrew Day was the top scorer, posting an impressive 278 out of 300. Day had one perfect round during the tournament and was only 4 points off his personal best.
Five additional Prosper archers did achieve personal best scores at the tournament, however. Andy Hedges raised his personal best 11 points to score 261. Calleigh Archer (yes, that’s her real last name) increased her score 5 points for a 276. Jenna Williams scored 267, an increase of 7 from her previous best. Emma Lynch brought up her score 4 points to a 259. But most improved was Lola Combs who scored a 257, up 13 points from her best before the tournament.
Archery coach Becky Hedges said “We had a great time and represented Prosper very well. We finished 38th out of 66 teams and for a first-year program we are extremely proud.”
Because of the huge amount of interest and limited practice times and facilities, they were forced to use a lottery program to choose only 30 to be a part of the team. The team has been practicing twice a week at Texas Archery Academy in McKinney and holds an optional practice on Saturday mornings. But Hedges and the rest of the archery team are excited that Prosper ISD is working with them on a practice facility so they can be more inclusive and also practice locally.
“We had over 200 young to-be archers come to the first meeting and we could only accept 30,” said Hedges. “We are hoping this will open the program up to even more kids.”
The Prosper 2017 NASP Worlds Tournament Roster:
Adriana Robinson
Akwani Nyamboli
Alex White
Alexia Moon
Alyse Schopp
Anthony Panebianco
Andrew Day
Andy Hedges
Cadence Holguin
Calleigh Archer
Carolina Alatorre
Cody Henson
Emma Lynch
Gavin Capone
Jenna Williams
Lola Combs
Shalion Wallace
Tilly Mote
For more info about becoming involved with the High School, Middle or Elementary (4th and 5th) teams, please feel free to email prosperarchery@gmail.com and Follow Prosper Archery on Facebook and Twitter.
