by Mari Radtke
MMCRU began its Archery program in 2017 under the guidance of then teacher Char Duncan. She served as the main driver, coach, and supporter of the program from its inception until she took employment at River Valley. Now, seven years later, nineteen students participate in the program. That number has remained pretty stable throughout.
Iowa High School athletics programs do not sanction archery the same way they do wrestling or basketball, for example. Archery in Iowa high schools is administered by Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) under the National Archery in the Schools Program (NASP). NASP is a state and nationwide program. All local competitions are run by their rules and standards.
The MMCRU School District shows its support of archery by provided transportation to and from meets and it covers the cost of a practice facility. Sawyer Center at Grace Methodist Church, across the street from the high school is where practices are held.
The archery season runs from about early December through early March. A school cannot begin its competitive season until after having a minimum of one week of practice. Most, but not all competitions are held on Saturdays. MMCRU enters from 11 to 15 competitions each season. Tournaments have been held at Marcus in the past, but this is Coach Kim Haaben’s first year. She feels like she’d like to get better grounded in the coaching role before adding running a tournament to her schedule. She is assisted by her volunteer husband Jerod and their son who was a first-year archery participant.

Students can begin archer at MMCRU in their freshman year. They are instructed in the basics: safety, proper standing, shooting and aiming, rules, scoring and etiquette. They competitions are scored from shooting at different distances from the targets in bullseye and moving to a different spot to get a different shooting distance for the 3-D.
Some of the equipment is owned by the club. Both bullseye and 3-D targets are owned by the club. Some of the bows, cases and arrows are also owned by the club. Students often get their own bows after a year or two participating. It can be an investment. Only the coaches are allowed to do maintenance on the bows. And, according to NASP rules, every particpants equipment must be of the same brand and style.
Like all extra-curricular activities the goal is to earn a spot at a higher level competition. State is the next level for archer in Iowa. To qualify to compete at the state meet an archer must have two scores totaling 532 points. That’s scoring threshhold is the first hurdle. After all the qualifying tournaments are over the top 80% of scores will actually be invited to the state meet. The state meet is a 3-day event at the Iowa State Fairgrounds. It begins February 28.
In the history of the Archery program at MMCRU particpants have qualified for state each year. There are qualifiers this year as well. The final cut list will be distributed on Sunday February 9.

The Archery Club at MMCRU is just wrapping up a fundraiser. They raffled gift cards to Jordan’s Meat Locker including a $200 dontaion by the business. They hope is to raise at least $2000 to replace at least some of the equipment during this off-season.
It’s bullseye targets are 10 years old and ready for replacement. The 3-D targets, life-sized animal shapes, have panels that can be replaced. MMCRU 3-D target panels are fine at this time. The bows owned by the club are also in the 10-year age range. They are due for some new cables and restringing. Arrows get bent and the feathers sometime get worn. The supply of good arrows is dwindling. Contact the MMCRU High School office for more information to help support the program with a donation, 376-4171.