Aim, Pullback, Shoot. Sounds simple, but ask any Archer at U. City High School and you’ll realize there’s more to it. As the season approached for the UCHS Archery team, questions started to arise.

 The first practice was on Oct. 28th. Locally acclaimed Archers looked forward to polishing their skills, and new archers wanted to prove their worth. 

The U. City Archery Team is a close-knit group, meeting every week at 9 am through snow and rain or sun and clouds. From the outside looking in, archery seems like a selfish sport. Your score matters; you play for you. The solo performances of the Archers go towards their rewards and records- not the team’s. The team is the group of said Archers representing their school. However, it’s hard to find a closer group than these Archers 

“I’m more about improving and getting better at the skills than I am necessarily about, you know, winning,” said Dan Holden, head coach. 

 Every Week, whether you’re friends or siblings or maybe even enemies, the UCHS archery team unites as one. It doesn’t matter if you’re new or experienced, the team is a dedicated group to improve your skills. 

“Well I try to have some of the more experienced archers mentor some of the new ones,” Coach Holden said. 

The impact of teamwork has a ripple effect within the UCHS Archery team.

The Emily Method

A very notable Archer, Junior, Emily Blackwell, has blazed a trail in the archery team in the past years, a so-called “veteran” in the field. Blackwell paved her way and set her name in stone from the start, putting up scores you rarely see in a young archer. These scores included two perfect 50s in practice and a score of 47 in the tournament. 

“It is really just a mixture of practice and trial and error,” Blackwell said. “I found out what my flaws were and then I practiced undoing those bad habits.” 

Blackwell portrays herself as a simple Archer until you dig deeper. A calm and collected person in the world is a “firecracker” in the range. She developed her style of shooting that has been critiqued and contrasted to the highest extent to figure out why in the world this style works. This style is called the Emily Style. The Emily Style is to draw back the bowstring, take a quick look at the target, and shoot. A guess, almost. 

“To me, it is a representation of the passion I have for the sport and how I was able to make it a part of me,” Blackwell said. 

“I’m growing out of that style now but it still reminds me of how personal I made archery.”

The average time an archer aims with the string pulled tight is 2-5 seconds; Emily takes less than 1.5 seconds to aim. With the arrow direction being inferred you may think this would cause inconsistencies in her accuracy; however, last year Blackwell ranked #2 in the school behind Declan O’leary for total points. 

“I’m very excited to get back to doing it,” Blackwell said. “It’s been a year. And I’m excited to see who’s going to be on the team.” 

With this hope for the new season we must ask is the Emily Style luck or instinct? 

Hope Ahead

For all four years of Jasmin Lewis’s career, she was an avid archer, an undisputed champ in the school, and a history maker for the U. City Archery Team. Many perfect scores and long summers later Lewis graduated in 2023. A mentor within the team and a well-educated scholar of U. City left.

This swift departure left a gaping hole in the building blocks of the archery team. Someone needs to step up. Will it be a new freshman? Or a dedicated veteran such as Emily Blackwell?

We will have to wait and see.