Due to the uncertainty with Covid, the archery coaches, Josh Colwell and Veronika Maass, have decided to not have a TC archery team this season. We are truly sorry about this loss and understand the disappointment it may cause for the kids who were eager to compete on the legendary TC archery team. We intend to continue teaching archery in our PE curriculum and hope we can reboot the archery team next year.
Here is a message from our outgoing certified archery coach and TC parent, Veronika Maass.
"Reflecting on the past I had a great honor of working as a coach on the TC archery team for three years with Sue Doty, our long term PE teacher of serving TC for 32 years, who retired last year. She volunteered to start coaching the TC archery program in 2006 with at team of dedicated parents becoming the first elementary school in Washington State to attend the NASP state tournament. When Josh, our current PE teacher, Sue's previous student joined TC, he became part of the archery coaching team.
Archery, taught in schools as part of the physical education curriculum through the National Archery in the Schools Program (NASP), has proven to captivate students with reporting to be better connected to their school, being coed and not favoring tall or fast or strong like too many other activities or sports. It levels a playfield and allow socialization with reaching students they were previously deems unreachable. Since its inception in 2002, NASP has put a bow and arrow in the hands of over 18 million students grades 4-12 nationwide.
School teams can compete in NASP state, national and international competitions. Thornton Creek received its starting equipment as part of the participation, and over the years it has build a solid foundation for success with students winning top three places as a team or individuals on state and national level. Three years ago we had a TC student qualified for the international competition! All the hard work is represented in the trophy collection you can visit in the office on display. I was able to capture a symbolic picture on Sue's last day at school with representing the kids and coaches surrounded by the trophies.
As an outgoing parent of a 5th grader I would like to encourage the TC community to continue the archery legacy with keeping engaging interested parents for training and assisting as coaches. There has to be two certified coaches at any practice due to safety, so it is crucial to have trained parent coaches. Feel free to reach out to Josh if you are interested to help out next year in 4th and 5th grade."