Increasingly, colleges across the country are seeking innovative and cost-effective strategies to boost on-campus student recruitment and retention. With factors such as declining enrollment, an increase in popularity of distance education, and other barriers to success for institutions nationwide, it’s now more important than ever for campuses to stand out from the competition.
Many institutions are not aware of the popularity of archery and the number of high-school aged student-athletes seeking to continue participation in college. This lack of education can lead to missed opportunities, not only for retaining students already enrolled but for recruiting new students to campus.
The 2023 National Archery in the Schools Program (NASP) National Tournament attracted 15,492 archers in fourth through 12th grade. NASP is just one of many organizations offering youth archery that’s building a robust pipeline of archers nationwide. By the time many of these archers have reached an age where they’re applying to colleges, they’ve been participating in the sport for a decade or more, and they don’t want to stop simply because the school they choose to attend doesn’t have an archery club or team.
Benefits of Collegiate Archery Programs
Whether your institution is aiming to meet its goal of increased recruitment, retention or both, understanding the benefits of archery and the characteristics of many participants can help accomplish these goals.
Many instructors and coaches report participating in archery can lead to increased focus, self-confidence and overall academic improvement. In a stressful environment such as college with the rigors of academics, archery is widely reported to be a cathartic activity with physical, emotional and mental benefits. In addition, it’s widely reported archery can be a niche for students who don’t have an interest in participating in more traditional sports.
Not only is archery a lifetime sport that can be introduced at any age, it’s a sport that’s accessible for both able-body and archers with disabilities. Archery is truly unique in that age, physical ability, gender and other traits that may prevent someone from excelling — or even participating in a different sport — can allow an individual to flourish in the sport of archery.
Furthermore, archery can be a relatively low-cost sport to implement. Plus, it can be conducted in existing recreational spaces such as gyms, soccer fields and baseball fields.
Detailed instructor certification courses ensures all archery programs prioritize safety.
Nationwide, over 90 colleges and universities are offering archery as a student organization, club or varsity sport, with new programs being continuously added. Institutions are recognizing the high-caliber students this activity can attract while seeing the level of interest that can be generated on-campus from first-time archers falling in love with the sport.
Being equipped with this knowledge can help university officials and campus rec directors as they make key decisions on what programs to fund.
Livy Delage is the club development manager at USA Archery. She can be contacted at ldelage@usarchery.org.
