The young students competing in the archery event at St. Joseph Catholic School Wednesday came in all shapes, sizes and ages. There were those who towered over six feet and those who barely stood five.
While the kids from St. Joe and O’Bannon may have looked different on the outside, on the inside they all brought an intensity and a focus to the contest. The target was the same distance away for all of them.
Perhaps, no archer was more focused than St. Joseph’s Avery Cole. Avery is a junior this year, but she has been a member of the St. Joseph archery team since she was in the fourth grade. Archery coach John Baker calls Avery one of the best marksman on his team. Baker’s squad defeated O’Bannon 2,845 to 1,605 Wednesday.
“I just fell in love with the sport,” Avery said. “I have asthma so this is the one sport I can play.”
Over the years, Avery said she has learned to stay calm and focused when it is her time to shoot.
“Whenever I am up there, I just try to clear my mind,” she said.
Avery is one of many St. Joe archers who have helped make Coach Baker’s squad one of the premier teams in the Delta. The Irish regularly go to Jackson at the end of the season to compete for a state championship.
While Avery is a seasoned veteran at archery, many of the students competing on Wednesday were newcomers. In fact, this is the first year O’Bannon High School has had a team. O’Bannon coach Tavarus Jackson said the first few weeks of practice required a lot of patience on his part, but he is now starting to see quite a bit of improvement from his young archers.
“We are giving the kids something different to do, and we are teaching them to be patient and to not be so hard on themselves,” Coach Jackson said.
O’Bannon seventh grader Michael Johnson said he is thankful his school gave him a chance to be an archer.
“I may look like I should play tough sports, but I am not into playing sports like basketball and football. This gives kids like me a chance to be a part of a team.”
