This past Saturday, September 28, was Cabell Midland Archery Team’s first tournament of the year. This tournament was a little different than those in the past.

It was the second week after the returning team started practice. Normally, tournaments are farther into the year like November or even late October, but this one was the last weekend of September. This meant that the returning archers needed to practice harder than ever before and prepare for the tournament, considering the fact that most of them did not practice over the summer.

It was outside, all of their previous tournaments have been in a gym at another school, never outside. Some of the students practice at home outside, but most of the students were unprepared for what came during the tournament. The first flight, the wind picked up and slowed down multiple times within 30 minutes of shooting. Towards the end of their round, it started raining, which a lot of the shooters were not expecting.

“I would go again because the concept of outdoor shooting is very neat,” said junior, Grayson Bess, “and gives us all a new method of practice.”

”The team placed first out of all of the high schools in the tournament,” said Bess, “I took first place male and second overall in all shooters”

Overall, this was a great experience and an amazing tournament to start off the year. Even with the change in weather conditions and unknown environment, the team had placed first in the high school division and their coach couldn’t be any prouder about how well the team did. Thank you, Jonathan Clemins, for helping us enjoy this experience and starting off another great year!