The Charles Henderson archery teams are preparing for their biggest competition yet Thursday as they head to Birmingham for the 2012 Alabama Archery in the Schools Program State Championship.

The Trojans will be bringing 51 shooters making up three teams to the championship, with the top 12 from each team making up the final score.

“It’s going to be very competitive,” Trojans coach Forrest Lee said. “It’s going to be a fresh start for everyone and we would be very fortunate to finish in the top 5 of our division or even higher. I’m excited about how some of our shooters have improved their scores and we’ve been working hard to make improvements. It’s going to be interesting to see how we do.”

Each shooter will get 30 arrows, with 15 shots taken from 10 meters and another 15 from 15 meters with all arrows shot from identical Matthew’s Genesis bows without the aid of sights or release aids.

“There’s going to be roughly 1500 students competing from all over the state of Alabama,” Trojans coach Susan Fountain said. “It’s a big event and it’s always good to take a team to compete at state. We’ve got all kinds of different kids taking part and archery is truly a life sport that they can enjoy the rest of their lives.”

The Trojans have a strong set of players coming into the state tournament, and were dominant at the regional competition back in February at almost every age level.

The high school team had three boys and two girls finish in the top ten of their age group, while the middle school team had five boys and six girls in the top ten.

The elementary school team, which is actually made up of sixth grade students, didn’t have any top ten finishers on the boy’s team but did have five girls finish in the top ten including the top four places.

The Trojans from all the teams will need to put on a good showing to place in the top spots, and will be competing against over 1200 shooters from some of the best programs in the state.

But as strong as the competition is, the Trojans have some solid shooters of their own such as middle schooler Lindsey Fox who shot 277 out of 300 to win her division at regional and Abigail Salmon who shot a 240 to place first in the elementary group.

The state competition will be broken up into six flights that will be spaced throughout the day, culminating in the awards ceremony later in the afternoon.

The first flight will begin at 9 a.m. with a new flight beginning every hour until 3 p.m., though Lee expects the majority of the Trojan shooters will participate in the 2 p.m. slot.

The Trojans will have shooters competing in all three age groups, which range from an elementary age level all the way to high school, a big increase from 2011 when the school only competed on the high school level.

“Last year we only had one team to compete with,” Lee said. “Now we’ve got three teams so it shows the program is getting bigger and the kid’s are excited to be able to go and compete. We all want to see how well we can do. We’re going to try and do well and just go from there.”

The tournament will begin Thursday at 9 a.m. at the Birmingham-Jefferson Civic Center, and continue throughout the day until the final flight is completed.

The awards ceremony for the tournament will be held immediately after, and should begin around 4:30 p.m.

 

Charles Henderson’s archery team consists of the following participants.

 

High school team:

Courtney Bobo

Brady Bouldin

Nathan Bouldin

Kolt Goodson

Hannah Gordan

Josey Green

Ryan Helms

Jordan Jacques

Ashlyn Johnson

Jeffery Jordan

Max Kersey

Joseph Leveque

Trissy Magrath

Kate Mayotte

Ethan Norman

Sheldon Rivenburg

Kait Ross

Hannah Scarbrough

Anna Steed

Hunter Steed

Middle school team:

Adam Bensinger

Caitlin Bobo

Lindsey Fox

Kyle Goodson

Sarah Gordon

Tyliah Hill

Ashton Lewis

Gage Mays

Soobin Park

Kush Patel

Austn Pevehouse

Gavin Roberts

Zack Scott

Jessie Shipman

Everlena Skaggs

Maya Thomas

Jordan Williams

 

6th grade team:

Jasmine Armstrong

Abby Barron

Jacob Brooks

Troy Fountain

Kelsey Gibson

Richard Haynes

Abby Lee

Malory Magrath

Katie Nicols

Marjorie O’Campo

Payton Robinson

Abigail Salmon

Casey Speed

Dejean Starks

Logan Wilson