Twin Bridges archery team brings home the bullseye state championship
The Falcons flexed their dominance by splitting their team and earning medals with both
Mavrick Greemore and the rest of the Twin Bridges archery team got their turn to ring the bell in the foyer of the high school after winning their first state championship as a team in the National Archery in Schools Montana State Tournament.
“When I was seven, I started picking up a bow, and really what I was doing it for was just to get out and hunting, and then it kind of turned into a big thing, and I started going across the country shooting now, so it's become a great thing for me,” said Greemore after the ceremony.
Greemore has been a leader in the development of the Twin Bridges archery program that had about 65 of the 143 middle and high school students participate this year.
“It started out and it still is just a PE program,” said head coach Mike Greemore.” So we do three to four days a week, every class period, from seniors through fifth grade, and then we build middle school teams and high school teams.
The team had so many participants this year that they decided to split the group into two teams. The result was a gold and a bronze medal in the state competition, a fitting send off for the senior class that got it all started according to their coach.
“Those seniors, it's been a great bunch of kids,” said Greemore. “I started coaching them 13 years ago, and they were all kindergartners. So it's been a great ride for them to experience first place at their last event. It's kind of a cool deal.”
Mavrick Greemore, Hunter Turk and Chase Hutchinson finished fourth, fifth and sixth respectively in the high school division. Greemore was the top senior. Turk was the top junior and Hutchinson finished third in the sophomore division. Them, along with Flint Janzen who finished ninth overall and was third in the junior division all qualified for the Western Nationals tournament taking place in Sandy, Utah on April 23-25.
For Greemore, the win is just another memorable step on his archery journey.
“I have a full ride [scholarship] opportunity going to the University of Rio Grande in Ohio this coming year, so hopefully I'll go down there in the fall,” he said. “It'll be the start of 3d season, and then we'll just keep advancing as it goes on.”
Scholarships are exciting but rare in any sport. The real benefits of archery in schools goes far beyond bullseyes according to Greemore.
“For me, it's been a big help,” he said. “It's helped me advance myself in a lot of ways. You can do this for the rest of your life, and it's one of those things that if you start at a young age or older, you're still going to be shooting.”
More information about the National Archery in Schools program is available at www.naspschools.org.
