Tuesday, March 31, 2020

Benjamin May Named as West Virginia State S3DA Coordinator


Williamsburg, KY – Benjamin May has been named as S3DA West Virginia State Coordinator. As State Coordinator, Ben will oversee the development and operations of S3DA within West Virginia, including educating and recruiting parties interested in forming new S3DA clubs and teams, coordinating with the Regional Coordinators and when possible attending and assisting with National S3DA events. Ben learned about S3DA through Eric Shock, former WV State Coordinator and he is very excited to take on the NEW role of State Coordinator.

Ben was born in Morgantown, West Virginia and currently resides there. He started shooting a bow and arrow when he was 8 years old and began bowhunting when he was 12. Benjamin’s father had a passion for bowhunting, and he feels that passion was passed on to him as he has since become a very accomplished bowhunter. He has been successful in taking a Pope & Young white-tailed buck on public land and has even taken a very nice antelope in Wyoming. Ben has diligently made efforts to build a similar archery foundation for his two sons. Both of his sons are successful bowhunters (having taken deer with a bow and arrow) as well. Ben states, “My dad was a very positive influence in my bowhunting interests as he would always make sure I had quality gear and he would take me out to hunt every chance he had.”

May has worked hard to learn the fundamental archery skills needed to be competitive at State and National Tournaments. He has won several State Championships and placed very high at some National Tournaments. Ben takes pride in being able to pass the skills that he has taught himself down to his two children and the S3DA team that he currently coaches.

Benjamin May said that he became interested in S3DA, because his children were curious about archery. They wanted to have the opportunity to be on an archery team, but there was not one available in the region where they live. Ben said that when Eric Shock presented the S3DA club opportunity to them, his kids were very excited to have the opportunity to participate on an archery team and that he was excited as well.

Ben said that recently the West Virginia Secondary Schools Athletic Commission (WVSSAC) adopted archery as a sanctioned school sport in the state of West Virginia. Ben feels this was great because any growth for the sport of archery provides kids more opportunities from your typical club/team sports where you must depend on others to win, whereas with archery the result generally depends on you as an individual. However, many youth archers in West Virginia have their own archery equipment and cannot participate in the school programs due to the equipment restrictions. May said this was the biggest feature that caught his eye with S3DA, because the S3DA model has standardized the tournament format instead of restricting equipment. This opens a much broader avenue for kids to participate in the sport.

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