School of the Nations poised to start archery club

Archery Guyana has, for some time, been trying to break into the school level, in order to popularise the sport of archery. A step in that direction was taken on Thursday morning when School of the Nations became a certified archery club.
School of the Nations has become the first school in Guyana to have an official archery club, but Archery Guyana hopes to branch out to other institutions.
Representing Archery Guyana, National Archery Judge Nicholas Hing shared the vision that Archery Guyana has for competition at the school level.

“What we hope to see is archery happening in the school sports; and you know school sports are very competitive, and we hope that archery becomes very competitive there – which will lead to the Nationals, Regionals and for the children to develop from nursery all the way to university with Archery,” Hing related.
An elated Pamela O’ Toole, School of the Nations Director, has shared her excitement at being able to introduce the sport to the students, and has thanked Archery Guyana for their involvement.
“School of the Nations is really delighted and very thankful to Archery Guyana for (having us be) the first school in the country to have an archery club and bring this new sport to the students of Nations.
“And we’re very grateful to Ms. Whyte and Mr Cheeks for the effort that they have made, and to the personnel of Archery Guyana,” she shared.
O’ Toole added, “And we look forward to working with our children and to be entering into competitions with this new sport.”

Archery Guyana have committed to training the instructors, who would then pass on the knowledge of the sport to students. One of those instructors is the school’s Physical Education teacher Kenrick Cheeks, who is eager to push the sport.
“My mission here is to develop long-term, lifetime skills in all students. So, we do a lot of other sports, and I try to get from the best of the best to aid them to this level, and archery is a recognized game all across the world, even to the Olympics,” the PE teacher explained.

Cheeks continued, “So, I’m here to do all of this to help them to that level.”
While the sport is taught at the school, Archery Guyana is expected to provide the personnel for administration of competitions. Aside from certification, the school has also been provided with a beginner’s bow set for its use.