Well over 1,900 students from fourth grade to high school seniors will take aim at the Hot Springs Convention Center and Bank OZK Arena March 6-7 in the 18th annual Arkansas Game and Fish Commission Archery in the Schools State Championship.
Student archers have competed in state qualifying events since November with one goal on their minds: post one of the top 30 team scores in their division and make it to the state championship.
“We had 29 qualifying events,” Aimee Swaim, AIS program coordinator for the AGFC, said. “We only took the highest single score for each team, but teams could participate in as many events as they wished. Some teams qualified in a single outing, but others shot in multiple events to improve their scores and earn a berth.”
Don’t let the number of qualifiers a team participated in be an indicator of their skill, however.
“Some of our top-performing teams shoot at multiple state qualifiers to build more practice time, while others practice just as much at their school but only make it to one qualifier,” Swaim said. “There are always a few teams to watch, but it’s really anyone’s meet and we’ve had some teams come out of nowhere and perform really well in the past.”
In addition to the top 30 teams in each of three age-based categories (Grades 4-5, Grades 6-8 and Grades 9-12), any students shooting an individual score above a 280 out of 300 possible points are guaranteed a spot in the state championship.
“We do that for those archers who may not have enough teammates to post competitive scores or those who are on teams that fall just short of the cutoff,” Swaim said. We had two students in the middle school division and five in the high school division qualify using that route this year.”
The top three teams in each age group will receive medals and team trophies, and the fourth- and fifth-place teams will receive medals. The top individual boy and girl in each age group will receive a Mathews Genesis bow. Individuals, both boys and girls, placing in the top five positions of the senior division also will receive college scholarship money provided by the AGFC, starting with $2,500 for the top boys and girls finishers and incrementally decreasing $500 for each placing.
All participating schools are encouraged to gather nonperishable foods in a side event to fight food insecurity in Arkansas. The Arkansas Hunters Feeding the Hungry truck will be at the event both days, and the school that brings the most donated canned goods each day will receive $1,000 to help build their program.
“Last year, the schools really stepped up their game and donated a record 7,500 pounds of food,” Ronnie Ritter, AHFH president, said. “I’m hoping to challenge the schools this year with a new goal of 10,000 pounds of donated food. With the number of archers participating in the event, that really only boils down to bringing a couple of cans each. Or you can do like Salem Elementary last year and hold a food drive before the event. Salem gathered so much food for the needy last year that we had to go back to them with the truck and pick it all up! I’d love to see more schools get involved at that level to help fight a very real problem in Arkansas.”
The elementary and middle school divisions compete on Friday, beginning at 9 a.m., with trophy presentations expected at 4 p.m. The seniors (ninth through 12th grades) begin at 9:30 a.m. Saturday and should be wrapped up about 2 p.m.
The Archery in the Schools program began as a pilot project with 10 schools in 2005. Based on the National Archery in the Schools program, AIS brings competitive archery into elementary, middle and high schools throughout Arkansas, and a state championship event was added in 2009 to complete the year’s activities.
Visit www.agfc.com/ais for a link to state tournament scores and more information on Archery in the Schools.
2026 Archery in the Schools Bullseye State Tournament Qualifiers
Elementary Division (Grades 4-5)
Charleston Elementary
Waldron Elementary
Middle School Division (Grades 6-8)
Charleston Middle School
Waldron Middle School
High School Division (Grades 9-12)
Charleston High School
Waldron High School
