By Carl Holcomb
Moorefield Examiner
Arrows are flying in the Hive as the Yellow Jackets start their second season competing in the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources Archery in the Schools program.
Moorefield High School Archery team features a coed squad of 22 members with various levels of expertise led by multi-WV state archery champion head coach Leroy Shook.
Helping Shook guide the Yellow Jackets is assistant archery coach CW Nesslerodt, who also has won mult-WV state archery championships.
The MHS Archery team consists of Kensington Bedal, Cadence Brent, Keira Cornett, Marcus Cremann, Patience Crislip, Lilly Crites, Alayna Foley, Violet Hearn, Haley Helmick, Marcel Jaeger, Aleah Judy, Jager Judy, Nevaeh Ketterman, Michael Leininger, Jake Lumia, Derringer See, Ronan Strait, Riley Strawderman, Caitlin Walters, Josiah Whetzel, Geoffrey Williams and Adison Wolfe.
The Yellow Jackets had used a local facility in Old Fields to practice last year, but this season with the growth of the team the sessions are now held in the MHS auxiliary gymnasium.
“This year we have the gym in the evenings to practice and it feels like a regular team sport. I have another outstanding group of shooters. These kids love archery and have been practicing hard. They are determined and willing to learn,” Moorefield Archery coach Leroy Shook remarked.
The precision aiming during practice has brought early success as MHS Archery won its first tournament of the season in Maryland, becoming the Husky Bullseye Tournament Champions at Northern Garrett High School in Accident.
The Yellow Jackets recorded a champion team score of 2,063 to best the Army JROTC Husky Battalion’s 1,858 finish.
The Husky Bullseye Top Overall Archer was Moorefield’s own Adison Wolfe, who aimed an impressive 268 points.
“Outstanding shooting by all competitors. Well done to every archer who represented their school with pride,” Coach Shook noted.
MHS Archery team has been progressing in the right direction with consistency and focus as the following scores indicate the talent that is growing.
The Yellow Jackets top scores for each member over the past month in practice are: Bedal 248, Brent 233, Cornett 265, Cremann 273, Crislip 220, Crites 234, Foley 263, Hearn 247, Helmick 234, Jaeger 276, Aleah Judy 250, Jager Judy 270, Ketterman 234, Leininger 255, Lumia 270, See 261, Strait 276, Strawderman 199, Walters 259, Whetzel 268, Williams 257 and Wolfe 267.
Wolfe has shown great poise and precision.
Shook’s granddaughter Alayna Foley, has become a tremendous leader and has experience winning multi-WV state archery tournaments.
The archery distances are at 10 meters and 15 meters.
The Yellow Jackets take aim for several rounds at the targets for each distance during practice.
“The only difference between 10 meters and 15 meters is in your head,” Coach Shook implored to his young archers during last week’s practice held in the auxiliary gymnasium.
Crossing the line where the archers are preparinf to shoot at the targets could be dangerous, but Coach Shook has a safety protocol in place that no bow is raised if someone is beyond the line.
This meant getting a photo video for us. That was special. It all boiled down to working hard and everything just started clicking along. If you get better every week, the wins will start coming.
Note: The text “video for us… wins will start coming” appears to be part of the “Hammer Time” story continuity erroneously placed here in the layout, or part of a quote continuity error in the source text.
next to the targets wouldn’t mean having to dodge arrows.
MHS Archery travels to Lewisburg this Saturday.
The Yellow Jackets will be on the road foe each match which includes visits to Buckhannon, Bridgeport, Shady Spring and the closest venue is at Petersburg.
Moorefield will have online competition to become familiar with that kind of scoring for state tournament qualification.
The WVDNR selects the Top-10 teams and/or Top-50 individual archers for the state tournament held in Charleston.
The sport of archery continues to grow and the bullseye seems to be getting bigger in Hardy County as East Hardy Archery in the Schools program has expanded to include high school, middle school and elementary school spearheaded by coach Eric Heflin.
There will be opportunities to see the Yellow Jackets and Cougars this season in the Petersburg and Maysville area.
