Olympic Archery in the Schools (OAS) had a blast at the 2015 NASP Nationals! Over 500 archers joined us to try Olympic-style Recurve and to shoot in a Team Round Match. This year's NASP National Championship had over 12,000 archers competing from all over the nation! Over the course of three days, waves of archers shot in their designated flight time. When they were not competing the archers could explore the exhibitor area filled with vendors selling a wide range of fun things from archery equipment to archery themed clothing. Shooting events were also available such as a bowfishing experience and a huge IBO 3D Tournament. This year, OAS was also invited to give these archers an opportunity to try the Olympic-side of archery. "We're thrilled to be working with NASP to grow the sport of archery and to create more opportunities and pathways for young archers," says OAS Director, Keaton Chia. "We're excited to see schools offer both OAS and NASP together so that youth can shoot both types of bows as well as participate in different competition experiences."

We wanted to give these archers a taste of the OAS League Play which is unique and highlights new aspects of the sport like teamwork and head to head match-play. During our event, archers signed up in teams of 3 and then had a match against another team. They learned how the team round works with archers shooting one at a time like a relay. They also learned how the Set System Scoring works. The recurve bows were shot barebow so that their skills with a Genesis bow would carry over easily. Complete Olympic-style recurve bows with sights and stabilizers were also on display and caught the eye of many walking by.

With each group we saw the excitement build for the matches with some of them even leading to a shoot-off! These were especially fun as everyone gathered around with held breaths to see which team would take the match. Winners would receive a prize and bonus raffle ticket for a recurve bow.

Speaking of the raffle… drum roll please….
Congratulations to our BOW RAFFLE WINNERS:
Augie Auger, Nebraska
Kayla Taylor, New York
Wyatt Berhorst, Missouri

We hope that everyone had a great time with the OAS experience! From our discussions with coaches and archers we look forward to choosing our next OAS Conference for next season!