The North Georgia Christian Academy Knights are middle school archery state champions.
The Knights attended the Georgia Association of Private and Parochial Schools (GAPPS) State Championship March 14 at Georgia Southern University. The Knights achieved their championship in the program’s inaugural season.
“We were just floored,” coach Bryan Bogue said of the Knights’ accomplishment. “We couldn’t believe how quickly the archers got better and how dedicated they were to getting better every day.
“About halfway through the season, we started to realize that we might have a chance of getting on the podium. We didn’t set a team goal of winning a certain place at state, but we did set a goal of scoring 1,500 points. We were thrilled to see the progress and it just got more fun and fun to watch them.”
That is just what the Knights did when it mattered most, and NGCA secured first place with a team score of 1,536. Ty Bogue captured the individual state championship with a score of 273.
Laney Sanders placed second among all female archers with 266, while Emmalin Morrison finished fourth with 248. Abram Chancey finished sixth among male shooters with a 255.
Eight of the 12 NGCA archers recorded personal best scores during the tournament.
When the program was just assembling, the goal was to have a full roster, focus on fundamentals and build skills. Bogue initially received interest from eight students, but they hit their 12-archer target after some recruiting in the hallways.
“Our other goal was just to kind of learn the ropes,” he said. “We wanted to see how tournaments are run, figure out where to stand and all of that. We didn’t go into the season thinking a state championship was a realistic goal. That started to emerge after some early success after the first few tournaments.”
Bogue noted the team saw a dip in performance after its early triumphs. The Knights set individual and team goals at that point and devised a strategy to achieve them, which meant more refining at practice.
“Our kids just really bought in and really worked hard, got better every single day and kept improving,” Bogue said.
At events, each archer shoots 30 arrows. Half of those are from a distance of 10 meters, while the remaining 15 are from 30. Targets are 80 centimeters in diameter and contain 10 rings for scoring. Team standings are calculated by combining the top six scores from a roster of 12 archers.
“There’s 11 distinct steps to shooting a bow, and you have to do them correctly every single time,” Bogue said. “It really takes consistency. Everybody, after a bunch of shots, can get one bullseye, but the hard part is doing it over and over. If one little thing goes wrong, it really affects the arrow’s flight.”
Plans are to continue to grow the program and enter the high school division next year. Two current eighth graders will help make up that team, but Bogue will need 10 more. He hopes the middle school’s success will help nourish the program at the next level.
“We’re really set up well to succeed next year in middle school, and we want to start a high school varsity team as well,” Bogue said. “A lot of students saw the success of the team and there’s certainly more interest around the program now.”
The team was also coached by Allison Bogue and under the guidance of the NGCA athletic director, Katrina Nix.