The Stanley-Boyd High School and Middle School Archery teams had a successful tournament for their first time attending a state competition. Forty-two students competed at the Woodside Dome in Wisconsin Dells with over eighty schools participating. Stanley-Boyd Middle School archers placed seventh in the State with a qualifying score to compete at the National Tournament in Louisville, Kentucky on May 8th through the 11th. Stanley-Boyd Archery Coach Brandy Pecha mentions, “This is the world’s largest indoor archery competition.” With only six weeks to raise funds for the expensive trip that is projected to cost between $12,000 to $13,000, the first-year archery team is looking to quickly fundraise.
Discussing the huge growth that the Stanley-Boyd archers have made in their first year, Pecha commented, “We have continued to reiterate to students that the only thing other programs have on us is the experience and time, but we’re getting there, and we couldn’t be any more proud of the hard work the students have put in.”
Surprised to qualify for the national competition, she explained, “At the beginning of the season, we had no expectation to qualify at nationals. In fact, our scores showed that it was not likely. Our first tournament, our middle school team scored a 2754, which is about 250 points less than what was needed to qualify for nationals.” She highlighted the journey of the boys and girls archery teams.
“Our boys have a strong group leading the team. We have Lewis Lukes, who is consistently shooting above a 280 and ranked 9th in the state for MS boys. Gavin Potaczek, Aaron Lew, Beau Ducommun, Harley Hinrichs, Will Chwala, and Wesley Haas are also putting up consistent 250+ scores.”
Pecha detailed the transformation of the girls to the archery program. “We really struggled at the beginning of the season with not having enough females to even qualify as a team. We picked up three girls after the first two months. We have said since the beginning of the season that the team will go as far as the girls go.” She continued, “In the last two weeks of the season, our girls really picked up and we have several (Braelyn Goodman, Maci Geissler, Morgan Gundlach, and Sydney Haas) who are at or above 250 scores as well. Our archers have surpassed all of our expectations for the 1st season. They truly are on track to be in the top three next season at the state level.” Pecha attributed the quick success of the Stanley-Boyd archery teams to the dedication of the archers and the support of their families. “Students are putting in the work on their “free” time. Parents are buying bows, targets, etc to help their students make more progress. In fact, just about 1/2 of our team has their own bow.”
For more information on the Stanley-Boyd Archery Teams or to make a donation contributing to students attending the National Competition, contact Coach Brandy Pecha at bpecha@s-bschools.org
