This year is the first year that Arlington High has hosted an archery class, training the next generation of hunters and huntresses.

Coached by Ricky Albus, Martin teacher, the class of 108 high school students is being trained about the operation and skill of archery. The course is the first of it’s kind for AISD, with a complementary club and bi weekly competitions.

In a recent tournament, AHS sophomore Lee Cervantes scored 177 out of 300. While she didn’t individually qualify for state, she explained what would qualify a shooter.

“There’s two types of qualifications, team and individual,” she said “You have to have a score of 250/300 for individual and a minimum score of 2,500 for a team of 12 shooters.”

Students who wish to enroll may be surprised to find that there are no requirements to join.

“Anyone can shoot, in our last [tournament] we competed with elementary kids and junior high kids,” Cervantes said.

The class-club combo counts as a P.E. credit, as long as students regularly go to the tournaments and pass the class.

“It counts as a P.E credit and right now, to my knowledge, Arlington is the first and only district in the state of Texas that offers archery as an athletic credit,” Albus said. “So just like any of our other schools’ sports here in Arlington, students now get their P.E. credits up to a certain point, and then they’ll have to start taking it as a non-credit course.”

The course is open to all students who are interested and does count as a credit. Students can ask their counselors about signing up for the course at any time.