Commission Agenda Item No. 13
Presenter: Burnie Kessner

Briefing
Update on the Texas-National Archery in the Schools Program
And Community Archery Outreach Program
August 21, 2014

I.  Executive Summary: Staff will update the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission on the National Archery in the Schools Program and Community Archery Program.

II. Discussion: The National Archery in the Schools Program (NASP), brought to Texas in 2004, promotes student education and participation in the shooting sports. The program’s focus is on international-style target archery training in 4th-12th grade physical education classes. The program has grown from 17 trainers trained in 2004 to 3268 Basic Archery Instructors. Of those, 1946 are classroom teachers, representing more than 900 Texas schools and 46,617 students doing archery during the school day. In just the four counties in greater Houston area, there are 300 teachers NASP certified instructors representing 150 schools. Due to the popularity within the Houston Independent School District (HISD), HISD created their own qualifying competition for their NASP high schools to attend the state NASP competition.

The Community Archery Program, in partnership with the Archery Trade Association (ATA), focusses on two primary areas of archery: infusing USA Archery training and programs within Park and Recreation Center programs and incorporating ATA’s Explore Bowhunting curriculum into schools, non-profits and Parks and Recreation Center programs. Work began in August 2012 as a pilot in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. Starting with a handful of recreation centers, there are now 75 recreation centers in 21 communities doing archery programs; and 104 schools, 3 recreation centers and the Irving Police Athletic League using Explore Bowhunting.  There are currently efforts to spread the programs statewide with recent trainings San Antonio and Abilene.