Archery clubs can help turn pop culture inspiration into reality
Archery club members, from left to right, Anja Greenhalgh, Kenny Haeffele, Sam Kalis, Jordan Morris and Greg Haeffele line up and take aim.
Kenny Haeffele and Anja Greenhalgh take aim at the practice targets.
Do you imagine yourself battling Orcs with bow and arrows like Legolas from “The Hobbit” and “The Lord of the Rings,” taking on Earth’s biggest threats with trick arrows like Hawkeye from “The Avengers,” discovering your courage with bow in hand like Princess Merida from “Brave” or taking on a corrupt regime while displaying your archery skills like Katniss from “The Hunger Games”?
If so, you’re not alone. Archers say their sport has shot up in popularity, thanks to some unexpected marketing help from recent blockbusters.
According to USA Archery, the governing body for Olympic archery in the United States, the sport’s popularity has skyrocketed.
As “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1” hit theaters two years ago, the organization announced youth membership increased 121 percent between 2013 and 2014, an increase from the prior two-year period, which saw an increase of 104 percent between 2011 and 2013.
With the success of TV shows like HBO’s “Game of Thrones” and the CW’s “Arrow,” a series about a vigilante archer, and “Avengers” films slated for 2018 and 2019, it’s safe to say fictional archers will stay in the pop culture spotlight.
If you’re interested, local archery clubs can help you turn your fantasy into a practical sport.
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More local clubs and places to shoot arrows:
— Hill Archers, Hill Air Force Base, 801-777-9666, 75thforcesupport.com/content/archery-0
— Brigham Bowmen Archery Club, Brigham City (indoor range), Mantua (outdoor range), brighambowmen.com
— Cache Archers, Logan, info@cachearchers.net
— Wylde Arrow Archery, Centerville, 801-546-0962, wildarrowarchery.com
— Summit Archery Center, Ogden, 801-393-4429, summitarchery.com
— Marshall White Center, Ogden, 801-629-8253, ogdencity.us/ogdenrecreationdev/marshall-white-center
“We definitely have a lot of people interested because they saw ‘Hunger Games’ or ‘Avengers,'” said Ken Haeffele, West Point resident and president of Weber State University’s Archery Club. “It’s got people thinking ‘Oh, that could actually be really fun.'”
Weber State’s club accepts faculty, staff, students and alumni, whether or not they have earned a degree at the university, along with community members who are sponsored by a current member. When Weber State’s club began six years ago, it had six members, only three of whom were regularly active. Now, the club boasts about a dozen members and continually accepts recruits.
JASON CHACON/Special to the Standard-Examiner
Archery club members, from left to right, Anja Greenhalgh, president Kenny Haeffele, vice president Sam Kalis and Jordan Morris, line up and take aim.
Although the university’s archers don’t regularly clash with Orcs or compete in Hunger Games, they do enter regional and national competitions, such as the United States Collegiate Archery Association National Indoor Championships, held last February at Diné College in Arizona. With the tournament happening again this winter, now is the perfect time to train.
Before this year, Weber State’s club also competed for practice space on the university’s Ogden campus with more popular sports like football.
“You can imagine how much clout we had in that fight,” Haeffele said.
Now, finding practice space isn’t an issue.
“We managed to line up a deal with Summit Archery in Ogden for range time,” Haeffele said. The club practices on Saturday mornings, and members get tips on shooting from coach Mark Sage, who has a level three coaching certificate and extensive experience coaching students, community members and veterans.
JASON CHACON/Special to the Standard-Examiner
Archery club members (front) Anja Greenhalgh and Kenny Haeffele practice.
Sage is also the archery coach for Utah Military Academy and education officer for Hill Air Force Base’s archery club.
“Almost anyone can shoot archery,” Sage said. “An archer doesn’t have to be a jock or overly coordinated.”
Sage has also coached archers who have impaired sight, limbs amputated, autism and attention deficit disorder.
The club’s vice president, Sam Kalis, of Pleasant View, loves that so many different people can become archers.
“I used to play baseball, but since I hurt my knee, I can’t really run or squat or anything, so archery is the perfect sport for me,” he said. “It’s a sport that relies more on discipline than brute force.”
JASON CHACON/Special to the Standard-Examiner
Two arrows are in the center yellow.
Anja Greenhalgh, a Weber State alumna, joined after hearing about the club from a friend who currently takes classes at Weber State. She said it’s the perfect spot to build her skills in the sport.
“People here know what they’re doing, so they can help you if you’re doing something wrong,” she said. “There’s a lot of advice floating around that I’ve already been taking a lot of advantage of, when it comes to my form.”
Sage has some advice for first-timers: “First and foremost, have fun,” he said. “Secondly, make sure that you have the right equipment that you feel comfortable with. Start out with something basic. An archer can always build on their equipment as they improve and have a better idea of where they would like to go with their archery.”
Weber State’s club welcomes members who bring their own bows and arrows. It also rents out equipment, like recurve bows, including those with accessories like stabilizers and sights, for practice and competition.
During competitions, archers are allowed a certain number of arrows in their quiver per round.
“My first year of college, I was wandering around the Block Party we have every fall, where all the clubs set up booths and present themselves, and I saw Hailey Wright, our first president, sitting at a table that said ‘Archery Club’ on it,” Haeffele said. “The only time I had ever shot archery before was once at camp.”
Now, with six years of experience, Haeffele sees archery as more of a competition against himself than other archers. “Sure, you all compare scores at the end, but during the match, you’re not trying to get around a defender,” he said. “You have to compete against yourself, and the one who wins is the one who wins against himself the best.”
He also enjoys the stress relief archery provides, “especially when you use your homework as a target.”
For those inspired by a fictional hero, Haeffele warns not to look to the latest blockbuster for good form. “You look at Legolas’ form, and it’s just so off of what is recommended to shoot,” he said. “There’s no way he would be able to aim consistently. It’s ridiculous.”
