Back On Target
The Revival of Ashland Middle School Archery
Brandy York
The Ashland Beacon
He steps up to the line, focused, disciplined, with the arrow resting against the bow. Steadily and with absolute precision … he fires, hoping to hit the target ahead of him. Down the line, to his left and to his right, are teams of other adolescents his age feeling the same adrenaline. Children of all ages and abilities who have found a common love for a growing sport known as archery.
Like any other school sport, archery requires practice, dedication, organization, coaching, and support from many. In the last four years following the trying time of the COVID pandemic of 2020, most programs have rebuilt and found their way back into the schools and community; not all of them, however. Despite surrounding local schools having their archery teams up and at it again, Ashland Middle School’s remained dormant until now. Thanks to some inspiration from his own son, as well as his own personal experience with the sport, a seed was planted into the heart of Tom Epperly to do what he could to revive the archery program at AMS.
His experience with archery stems back to his childhood, where he learned the basics at home and then went on to become involved in a physical education archery class in 1980. “I started shooting archery back in the mid-1970s. My brother brought home a bow and was target shooting out in the backyard at an old cardboard box that had a couple of hay bales behind it. I picked up the bow when he wasn’t around and started shooting the target myself,” recalls Epperly, describing himself as “a natural at shooting.”
Last year, Epperly’s (then) 15-year-old son developed an interest in shooting archery and received private lessons from David Messer of the Kentucky Elite Archery Academy. His son excelled, with a high score of 264, qualifying for state competition at the high school level. Epperly soon learned that with the halt of the middle school program over the years at Ashland, there was no longer experience being fed into the high school, with most archers graduating from Ashland High School last year. That’s when Ramona Bellew, head archery coach at the high school, as well as Alan Bellew, assistant coach, encouraged Epperly to apply for the position at AMS as the new archery coach.
“I’ve coached other athletic sports before, but I’ve never coached middle schoolers,” says Epperly. However, he is eager to step up to this new adventure. “All of the kids that I’ve met so far seem to be eager to be coached and eager to learn; really great kids.” He describes the AMS athletic director Steve Hicks and AMS principal Dr. Rebecca Howell as very supportive in making sure the program takes off smoothly and that all the required paperwork and safety checks are complete. As part of the process, the AMS archery program has become NASP certified (National Archery in the Schools Program). The team can accommodate 40 archers, with 35 having already signed up.
As described in the beginning, archery is a sport like no other; one with a place for students of all ages and abilities. There is a spot for all students in archery eager to participate and learn. Epperly beautifully described the inclusiveness of the sport as being welcoming to everyone- multisport and noncontact sport athletes, amputees, diabetics, paraplegics, those who are deaf, and even those who are blind. Personal growth and maturity, camaraderie, teamwork, self-improvement, self-confidence, as well as important archery safety skills are all part of what Coach Epperly says parents can expect to see in their children as a result of being a part of the team.
“We are simply picking up and moving forward from where the last team left off,” expressed Epperly, who will coach this group of middle school archers alongside his wife Dr. Kristen Epperly, who will serve as assistant coach. The community looks forward to seeing this team of young archers in their maroon and white, as a new day dawns for Ashland Middle School Archery.
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