By Aidan Mortensen | KOAL News

Marking one of the most rapidly growing sports in the Castle Country, archery has established a strong foothold in the elementary schools of the Carbon School District. At Castle Heights Elementary, this means consistent trips to compete on the national stage year after year.

Principal Wendy Fluckey and Archery Coach Kyle Hansen joined the KOAL newsroom to give an in-depth look at the program and discuss the team’s recent escapades.

“It was tough for us this year,” said Hansen. “We faced a lot of adversity all year long from sickness and injury and having kids move to where we didn’t place as high as I hoped we would, but the kids still gave everything they had and in the end, you know, that’s all we can ask for is that they come out and do their best.”

He continued,” I had some that had shot really well in the state tournament, and we thought they would come out that way, and it just didn’t go that way, but they didn’t give up. They gave their best and, you know, we’ve continued learning and growing from there, and we’ll see what happens.”

Switching gears, Hansen spoke on the preparation put in by the team – including early morning and after-school practices for the athletes: “We started back in October with tryouts, and we had about 80 kids that tried out for 50 spots. And after tryouts, we start to practice. I have a group that comes in at 6:45 a.m., Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday mornings until about 8 a.m.”

Hansen added,” Then I have another group that stays after school for about an hour and a half. So they’ve been putting in hours and hours since October to build up for this and the state tournament, and it’s just amazing how willing they are, especially those that get up at, you know, 6 a.m.”

Reflecting on the program’s history, Hansen looked back at its current state compared with when it started. “This is the 10th year that I’ve been here at Castle Heights, and that first year I struggled to get 24 kids to fill a team and through the district we only had 48 that competed and now 10 years later we had over 300 compete throughout the district and here at Castle Heights I have to cut about half them every year that would like to join us.”

Looking at the team from an administrative perspective, Fluckey sang the praises of the program,” It’s amazing to see their work ethic, their dedication. To the Archery Program, you know, it’s exciting to see them come to school and they just live and breathe for the Archery Program and it’s just such a positive impact on our school.”

Closing our conversation, Fluckey shared a message of gratitude,” We look forward to continuing our school year with parent support, and want to thank our parents for everything that they do to help our kids in our school be so successful and just a positive place to come and be.”

To stay up to date with Castle Heights Elementary, visit the school’s website or follow them on Facebook.