Kentucky to host largest annual school archery tournament in March

FRANKFORT, Ky. (March 21, 2024) — Kentucky will host the largest annual school archery tournament in the country March 28-30, 2024, when nearly 8,500 student archers from across the state compete in the Kentucky National Archery in the Schools (NASP) State Tournament. Hosted at the Kentucky Exposition Center in Louisville since 2004, the Kentucky tournament is now one of the largest state sporting competitions held anywhere.​​

Beginning in Kentucky in 2002 with 21 initial schools, the National Archery in the Schools Program (NASP) has now been adopted by about 9,000 schools across the country. NASP is an in-school program introducing students in grades 4–12 to international-style target archery. Students learn about the sport of archery as part of their school’s curriculum and are then eligible to compete in school-hosted events for the opportunity to participate in state and national tournaments. Each year, more than one million students learn archery, and more than 80,000 compete in NASP tournaments. ​​

One of the oldest sports in the world, humans developed archery for hunting, warfare and recreation. The first bow-shooting competitions took place in China during the Zhou dynasty (1027-256 B.C.). Featured at the Olympics in the early 20th century, archery returned as an Olympic sport in 1972. The 2024 Olympic Games at Les Invalides in Paris, France will include seven days of archery competition.​​

​​“Archery is one of the fastest growing sports in the country today with the National Archery in the Schools Program continuing to grow not just in Kentucky but most every state, and a number of other countries,” said Lisa Johnson, state NASP coordinator for the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources. “NASP provides schools with a sport that is core-content compliant fitting within school curriculum, is naturally inclusive of all types of students and is relatively inexpensive.”

The tournament will provide two distinct competitions – traditional bullseye shooting at a multi-ringed, flat target and 3D shooting on lifelike foam targets in the form of various North American game animals. High-scoring archers will move on to the NASP Eastern Nationals scheduled May 9-11, 2024, at the Kentucky Exposition Center in Louisville, Ky.​​

​​The 2024 Kentucky NASP state tournament competition will be held in the North Wing, South Wing A-C, and the East Hall, and will include hourly competition flights of teams beginning at 2 p.m. (EDT) on Thursday, March 28, and 10 a.m. (EDT) both Friday and Saturday, March 29-30. Spectator admission is free with parking at $12 per vehicle and $25 per bus.

Elementary, middle and high school student-archers will compete for individual and team honors. The top 15 senior boys and top 15 senior girls will receive $1000 scholarships to the post-secondary school of their choice. Senior academic archers will be eligible for 10 random $500 scholarships drawn throughout the event.​​

Continuing this year, all Kentucky NASP alumni, coaches, and friends are encouraged to participate in a special “Give Back” activity where they compete with 15 arrows at 10 meters for a chance to win equipment to donate to an archer or school of their choice.​​​

​​New this year, all Kentucky NASP archers and teams are encouraged to participate in the “Archers Aiming to Reduce Hunger” food drive to benefit Kentucky Hunters for the Hungry and Feeding America Heartland to help target hunger in Kentucky communities. Participating Kentucky NASP archers are asked to bring one item from the following list: any canned meat item such as canned chicken, spam, beef stew or any hamburger helper box item. Kentucky NASP archers and school teams have set a goal of collecting 8,000 food items. To help support this goal, contact lisa.johnson@ky.gov.

​​Complete state tournament results will be available online at NASP Tournaments. For more information about NASP, visit the Kentucky Fish and Wildlife website at fw.ky.gov/nasp, the NASP Schools – National Archery in the Schools Program (NASP)​ webpage, or call the Information Center at 1-800-858-1549, 8 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. (EDT) weekdays, excluding holidays.