This year we had 91 students participate in our archery program. Eighty-one of them competed in at least one tournament.
Outside of JMHS, Cameron HS and Our “A Shot in the PARK” archery tournaments can an hour and a half to three hours away. This year we hosted at least one event each month (November through April) Bridge Street Middle or West Liberty Elementary so that archers and parents in the area could attend a closer archery event. There are two types of National Archery in the Schools Program (NASP) archery tournaments. Bullseye is the traditional 80-centimeter rings tournament. OCA has been competing in Bullseye since we started in 2017.
The other is the 3D Archery Tournament. The targets are (6) rubber animals consisting of a turkey, coyote, bear, Antelope, deer and a ram. These targets have rings on them for the archers to score points. The rings are smaller and harder to see than the bright colored 80-centimeter ring targets. Last year WV NASP hosted it first ever 3D State Tournament. OCA did not participate as we did not have the 3D targets to prepare for this event. During the fall OCA was able to purchase two sets of 3D targets and began practicing after Christmas break.
From February through April,we competed in 5 3D Archery tournaments including the WV NASP 3D State Tournament in Charleston.
OCA had 10 Archers qualifying for the WV NASP Bullseye State Tournament in Charleston. Out of those 10 archers three of them qualified to move on to compete in the NASP Eastern National Archery Tournament in Louisville, Kentucky on May 10, 2025.
Returning WV State Champion WPHS Senior Kimber Koehler placed 6th with a 286 out of 300, West Liberty Elementary 6th grader Abel Hays placed 5th with a 280 out of 300, and West Liberty Elementary 5th grader Parker Williams placed 1st with a 292 out of 300.
Additional Ohio Valley Archers at Eastern NationalsTournament this week:
Oak Glen Middle School Qualified their whole team.
Adian Cease Cameron 8th grade Male
Clayton Howard John Marshall senior Male
Triton Brown St Michaels 7th grade Male
Tristan Bennett Tyler Consolidated HS 9th grade Male
Our January 10, 2025 “A Shot in the PARK” Archery Tournament at the Highlands was canceled because of weather conditions. At the time there were 927 archers from 67 schools registered to compete.
Archery is a co-ed sport and is popular with both boys and girls. There were 477 boys registered and 452. There was a difference of only 25 more boys than girls out of 929 archers.
We held our makeup tournament at WPHS on April 18-19. The archery season for some schools ends with the state tournaments in March. Therefor our April tournament was a success even though we only had 262 archers compete. We were able to host out very first 3D archery tournament at the same time as our Bullseye tournament. Bullseye was in the WPHS main gym with 26 targets while the 3D tournament was in the WPHS Gym “C” with 12 3D targets.
We were able to recognize our outstanding senior class!!!!
A year before Guntry WV opened its doors they had already reached out to OCA to see how we could work together to grow shooting sports here in the Ohio Valley. Guntry WV and OCA are hosting their first ever Archery Tournament at the new Guntry WV Building at the Highlands on May 17 starting at 10:00am with the last flight set for 2:30PM. This is a traditional NASP style archery tournament meaning archers must use only the Genesis Original Bow and Easton 1820 arrows. This is an instinctive archery tournament with no sights or releases.
This tournament will have 4 divisions elementary (4th & 5th graders), middle school, high school, and an ADULT DIVISION. There will be medals for the Top 3 Male and Top 3 Female Archers in each division. Guntry WV has sweetened the Adult Division by adding the following:
Both 1sts Place Adult Male and Adult Female each receive a One Year Individual Basic Members to Guntry WV.
There is only ONE 2nd place high score winner between Adult Males & Females that person receives a $100 gift card to Guntry WV.
There is only ONE 3rd place high score winner between Adult Males & Females that person receives a $50 gift card to Guntry WV.
Registration for this Guntry WV Spring Fling is on arrowscores.com and anyone one can register. Flyer coming soon
If anyone is interested in our OCA archery program or just archery in general, please reach out to Rick Thomas at rickthomas.oca@gmail.com
Upcoming Archery Opportunities:
Every Saturday from May 31 to August 23 from 11:00 to noon at Oglebay’s Camp Russell Athletic Field, OCA will be offering a one-hour archery opportunity to anyone interested in learning the basics of archery.
July 21 to 25 from 6:00 to 8:00 OCA will be hosting its 3rd Annual Outdoor Adventure Flyer attached
2025-26 OCA Parent meeting and practices will begin the fall.
