Since NASP®’s inception in 2007, the archery program has long been recognized for building confidence in youth participants, expanding extracurricular interests, increasing academic performance, and aiding young men and women financially towards their future academic endeavors. In 2016, the total amount of scholarships awarded, since 2007, reached $926,000.
The 2017 NASP® increased that figure bringing the total to more than a million dollars ($1,326,000 to be exact) since NASP® began. Five hundred and sixty-six students since the commencement of the archery program have received cash scholarships to go towards any education or training college of their choosing, after graduation from high school. NASP® expects those numbers to continually grow as more and more schools, and students, and sponsors become involved with the program.
Of course, it takes a lot of hard work, focus, and dedication to archery to be able to receive such a top honor. Student archers practice all year with their school archery team, coaches, and parents to prepare for state and national tournaments. After completing their competitive flight, among nearly 15,000 archers at nationals, the top five males and females then participate in the scholarship shoot-off. They begin by shooting five practice or warm-up arrows from a fifteen- meter shooting line, followed by five more arrows which are scored. If a tie occurs during the shoot-off, a single arrow, by each student archer will be shot for the tiebreaker. The archer, who shoots his or her arrow closest to center of the bullseye, is the winner. The first place male and female is awarded a 20k cash scholarship. Second place receives 15k, third place is given 10k, fourth place is afforded 5k, and finally fifth place is awarded 2.5k in scholarship money to put towards his/her higher education needs.
Scholarship awards will be handled a bit differently next year as NASP® expands its national tournament to the West beginning in 2018. What this means is that the national tournament will be split into two events, a western tournament and eastern tournament. The western event will be held at South Towne Exposition Center in Salt Lake City, Utah on April 12-14, 2018. The eastern will be held at its native location, the Louisville Exposition Center in Louisville, Kentucky on May 10-12. These changes allow the western participants to reduce their travel commitments making it more convenient. Of course, for scholarship purposes, the top males and females will be chosen from the results of both tournaments. As if the NASP® tournament wasn’t exciting enough, now there are two nationals to get pumped for! The shoot-off for scholarship cash will move from the May nationals in Louisville, to the NASP® World Tournament to be held at the Kentucky Exposition Center on June 7-9, 2018.
NASP® would not be possible if it weren’t for dedicated sponsors. Sponsors such as: Mathews Archery, Gordon Composites, Morrell Targets, Plano, Saunders Archery, Feradyne, BCY, NAP, Lancaster Archery, NEET, Easton Technical Products, Academy Sports and + Outdoors, and American Whitetail Targets not only aid in the generous scholarship awards, but also help supply NASP® with targets, arrows, bows, and other items the program needs to run such a successful program.
Roy Grimes, President and CEO of NASP® had this to say regarding the program and its sponsors. “According to a survey this past April, just under 800,000 of NASP®’s two million student archers participate in archery competitions outside their school. About 15,000 of these make it through local, regional, and state or provincial (Canada) tournaments to the NASP® Nationals. We are very pleased our sponsors make it possible for us to highlight the academic emphasis of our program by awarding these cash scholarships each year.”
With school in session, practice is currently underway as student archers prepare for the western and eastern national events coming this spring! For more information or to help NASP®, a 501(c)(3) non-profit, please visit www.naspschools.org .