Santa Rosa Independent School District hosted a National Archery in the Schools Program (NASP) instructor certification training Jan. 21. Nine people earned their NASP Basic Archery Instructor (BAI) certification and can begin teaching archery to school students.
The training was part of the school district’s Outdoor STEM Youth Leadership Project funded by the Texas Parks & Wildlife Community Outdoor Outreach Program. One of the objectives of the TPW-COOP grant is to increase the number of lower Rio Grande Valley schools offering archery classes to students.
Vanguard Academy and San Benito ISD can now begin offering an archery program at their schools.
Alberto Trevino, Afterschool Centers on Education (ACE) project director and NASP-BAI certified instructor, began the archery program at SRISD 11 years ago and has seen many students benefit from this non-traditional sport.
“Students have increased their self-confidence, improved their school attendance and raised their academic performance after being part of the school’s archery program,” Trevino said. “I’ve seen the self-esteem and self-confidence of students go through the roof when they hit the bullseye for the first time. Once students taste success, they want more of it.”
According to Burnie Kessner, archery coordinator for Texas Parks and Wildlife, Santa Rosa High School was one of the first schools south of San Antonio to participate in the state NASP tournament. SRHS has qualified for the state archery tournament the past three years.
