Williamsburg, KY – Georgia S3DA leadership decided early on that they would begin indoor season as soon as possible, allowing teams the opportunity to transition to 3-D season and get back outside. Following all state mandated COVID restrictions, GA S3DA managed to host four indoor regionals with over four-hundred student archers participating through the month of January. The decentralized approach to regionals was a new concept for Georgia S3DA that proved to be successful. Georgia S3DA State Coordinator, Jake Martin, attended each event and stated, “I was incredibly impressed with how professional each event was run. Allowing the regional coordinators to plan, source and run their own tournaments allowed them to develop better relationships with the teams and coaches within their region and they continue to learn more about the intricacies of facilitating archery tournaments.

Coaches, parents, and archers had mixed feelings about the rapid pace of the season, but everyone was extremely happy to just be able to compete after a long hard-fought competition season in 2020 dealing with the pandemic. Georgia S3DA finished their indoor season with a bang and went all out for Valentine’s weekend. Banks County School system provided an amazing venue that allowed Refuge Archery range to set-up 25 targets. On February 13th, Georgia S3DA ran lines at 9AM and Noon to decide their state champion and then moved straight into hosting the 2021 “Virtual” Indoor Nationals with lines at 5PM and then continued the next day at 9AM.

Georgia Conservation Coordinator, Trip Penn, wanted to mark the end of the indoor season and the transition to 3-D with a special event, so a 10-target Indoor 3-D Team event was created. Trip stated, “This was a large venue with a lot of open space, so we couldn’t let it go to waste.” S3DA students were able to pair up to make a team or shoot with a parent or coach. At the end of the day a total of thirty-eight teams shot in the 3-D conservation event. The winning teams were presented with gift certificates to Genesis L.A.W. and awarded Kindle Fires and various other archery related items.

The weekend was a huge success with 180 students competing in the Indoor State Championship and “Virtual” Indoor National Championship. Students were able to pick up all their regional awards throughout the weekend and parents were able to recreate podium photos from the regional events. The weekend could not have been possible without the continued support of the state sponsors, teams, parents, coaches, and community support. Georgia S3DA would like to say “Thank you” to everyone that made it possible as they move forward with the start of 3-D competition.

About Scholastic 3-D Archery

Scholastic 3-D Archery (S3DA) is a unique, family-oriented youth archery program which has grown exponentially across the United States as a next-step initiative to follow introductory archery programs. The mission of the Scholastic

3-D Archery program is to foster, educate and guide youth in the areas of 3-D, indoor target, and outdoor target archery as well as safe, ethical bowhunting practices. The goal of the S3DA program is to provide archery and bowhunting opportunities to youth in after-school settings, as well as with archery-affiliated clubs and businesses in the community. S3DA students participate in 3-D and target archery using compound and traditional archery equipment. Students can participate at local, regional, state, and national archery events and earn college scholarships from colleges and universities across the United States. S3DA addresses the need for a program to bridge beginning target archery experience and more advanced activities such as 3-D shooting and bowhunting. The program currently operates across the United States with hundreds of certified coaches serving thousands of young archers, grades 3–12.

Contact the Scholastic 3-D Archery National Office at:

www.s3da.org or 225 North 3rd Street, Williamsburg, KY 40769, Ph: 606.524.3685

Media contact Kayla Bolton at kayla@s3da.org, Ph: 423.494.2204