During his first year at Boston University, School of Management sophomore Kento Okamoto said he was disappointed to find that, unlike Harvard College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, BU offered no archery program.
In hopes of filling that void, Okamoto formed the Archery Club, which was added to the athletic roster at BU this fall.
“BU has a really good supporting system in terms of starting new club sports,” he said. “I thought, ‘hey, if there’s not an archery team, why not just make it?’”
Okamoto, the team captain, said the Archery Club is open to all students, regardless of their previous experience.
“I shot a couple of arrows when I was in the boy scouts,” said College of Arts and Sciences freshman Paul Armenta, who recently joined the team.
Though unfamiliar with the sport, Armenta said he sees the archery team as an opportunity not only to learn a new skill but to “practice and train and compete against other schools.”
The team practices weekly in Dedham at the ArcheryUSA range, an indoor Junior Olympic training center, Okamoto said. The range has certified coaches who teach the basics of the sport.
“For this year, we’re going to mainly focus on the recreational side of archery. … We want to teach everyone the basics,” Okamoto said.
The team currently has 16 members, though Okamoto said they are seeking more.
“Maybe in the next two to three years, I want the club to develop the competitive side more,” he said. “I want to let people know that, ‘Hey, BU archery is actually competing and they’re pretty good.’”
“The main goal of the club is to get more members to get enough people to the level where we can compete and actually go to tournaments and perform well,” said SMG sophomore Max Skudarnov, vice president of the team.
Ideally, Okamoto said he would like to see the club grow to the size of 40 to 50 members by next year.
If the archery team becomes successful, the Fitness and Recreation Center is willing to renovate their facilities to accommodate the archery team, Okamoto said. Moreover, this would mean that students, regardless of whether they are on the team, would be able to take archery as a physical education credit class.
“I call archery a mental sport because the key is whether you can concentrate,” Okamoto said. “During high school, I was the captain for my team, and when we were recruiting freshmen a lot of people actually told me that their test scores improved because they learned how to concentrate.”
“I like that archery can be both individual and team based,” said SMG sophomore Jessica Chan, the club’s treasurer. “If you have seen it in movies, like ‘Robin Hood,’ and thought it was interesting, you should try it out.”
Some students went to Dedham Monday evening to try archery for the first time.
“It was easier than I thought,” said SMG sophomore Andrey Alekseyev.
Editor’s note (Feb. 5, 2014) — This club is now defunct, according to Okamoto.
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