The Archery Club here at Bellevue College is currently open to anyone who is interested and would like to join. The club’s goals are to have fun, while also learning the basics and finer points of the sport. However, the club will not be meeting until Nov. 7 of this year. The meeting spot is Issaquah Sportsman Club.
Archery Club is exactly what its name entails: a place where people who know how to shoot or are looking into shooting, can come together to learn and practice. According to Shtefan Sykora, the president of the club and current student here at BC, it’s a great place to hang out, shoot and to improve technique. Shtefan Sykora is a level two archery coach, which means he helps sharpen the skills of those already familiar with the sport.
Jenna Sykora, the vice president of the club and current student, gave an insight into what a meeting consists of. “We generally have a split between a few members that have shot before and a few that haven’t,” Jenna Sykora explained, “So for the new members we explain the basics.” The basics that are being taught come in the form of how to grip the bow properly, how to aim at a target and the differences between a recurve bow and a compound bow. One of Jenna Sykora’s hopes this year is to have a couple more members than last year.Shtefan Sykora hopes that the club can soon get enough members to participate in tournaments, ranging in size from local to national if possible. He also hopes that BC will allow the club to shoot on campus, negating the long drive to the Issaquah Sportsman Club. “That’s our biggest goal at the moment. I’ve talked to the administration about it and it should happen this year,” Shtefan Sykora said. Other smaller goals for the club include owning their own equipment instead of renting and creating a permanent program here at BC. Shtefan Sykora explained that he hopes for the program to become a league that can competitively compete around the nation. However, there is one drawback to this goal, as Shtefan Sykora explains, “At the moment there are only three schools in the nation with competitive teams.”
The current number of members at the moment is around ten that are registered, with four or five coming on a regular basis. According to Shtefan Sykora the low numbers are due to a lot of scheduling conflicts and the newness of the club. It was first introduced in late winter of last year, not giving it much time to become popular.
Shtefan Sykora offers this piece of advice to veteran and new coming archers this year: “Bring warm clothes for these winter month, but not baggy. That will hinder you.”
To join the club, you must log on to their Facebook homepage, called Bellevue College Archery Club. Once on their home page, go to the section files and fill out a sign up form. Once done with this form email or message it to Shtefan Sykora and he will add you to the current roster. There are fees to join the club as well. There is a $30 fee to join the club.