The fourth biggest athletic story at Mid-Prairie during the previous academic year details the birth of a new program. Mid-Prairie student athletes, parents, advisors and administration came together and founded the Mid-Prairie archery club for middle school and high school levels. Their pre-season meeting happened in early November with the season running from Thanksgiving through March.

Mid-Prairie participated in more than eight meets over the winter, shooting at places like Washington, Solon, Cardinal, Springville, Ottumwa and more. Those who participated in the first year of the program at the high school level included Zane Fisher, Annie Morrison, Levi Bontrager, Koby Karnes, Kaylee Shirkey, Braydon Younge, Ethan Hall, Peyton Freeman, Paytin Swartzentruber, Paityn Jennings, Owen Clark, Camden Miller, Kylee Shirkey and Payton Peck.

Middle school Hawks included Layla Tedder, Elijah Statler, Landry Gingerich, Landon Kuenster, Carson Humphrey, Tate Bombei, Caiden Sellers, Alaina McNurlen,  Christopher Burnham, Dylan Humphrey, River Gehling, Morgyn Nafziger, Blake Peck, Harlee West, Hunter Robertson, Parker Jennings, Rylee Cady, Wyatt Tedder, Hailey Chalupa, Milo Sieren, Jason Heitman and Daniel Rodgers. Mid-Prairie coach Kent Karnes talked about putting the program together and how the team progressed during the year. “We as coaches showed up to the first meeting and saw there were about 60 kids. We were hugely surprised by the interest, we thought we might have 30 kids at most. The kids learned that there is a lot that goes into learning and setup. It’s not just practice and then go shoot at a tournament. Without the help of our parents we wouldn’t have been able to do what we did. We had sixth grade through seniors. The progress that the team made during the year was huge. We went from kids not being able to hit the target to start with to people shooting in the 220s and 230s out of 300. It was excellent. Our goal was to always make yourself better by one. By the end we had three qualify for state so we thought that was a pretty good first season.”

As part of the success of the program, several Golden Hawks brought home postseason awards. Seven members of the team between the two levels were named Academic Archers by the National Archery in the Schools Program. High School Hawks to earn the award included Koby Karnes, Kylee Shirkey, Peyton Freeman and Peyton Peck. At the middle school level it was Tate Bombei, Morgyn Nafziger and Blake Peck.

Zane Fisher, Elijah Statler and Landry Gingerich all qualified for this year’s state archery shoot.