Local youth archery team competes nationally

BLACKFOOT — Fresh off of competing in Las Vegas, a local youth archery team, with kids from Shelley to Blackfoot, is gearing up to compete at the western national championships inf Pocatello.

Amber Crapo, of Firth, started Blue Ridge Archers S3DA with just her three boys. Now, just a year later, the team has grown from three to 33 and has competed throughout the state and the country.

“We take kids that are between the ages of eight and 18 with any level of experience, from brand new beginners up through kids who are already competitive. We hold practices once a week and we provide opportunities for tournament experience for them,” Crapo said.

At the beginning of February, ten of the Blue Ridge Archers competed in Las Vegas, Nevada at the S3DA and Vegas Shoot tournaments.

“They did really well,” Crapo said.

Wyatt Crapo took 2nd place in Youth Pins Male, Karson Crapo took 1st place in Eagle Pins Male, Spencer Crapo took 2nd place in Eagle Pins Male, Izabella Broncho took 6th place in Youth Pins Female and JJ Pearson took 18th place in Youth Pins Male. 

Next, members of the team will compete at the Western Indoor National Championships on March 12 through 13, in Pocatello.

“When we started this, there weren’t really opportunities for competitive archery for kids,” Crapo said.

Crapo has been shooting a bow since she was 13 years old and she passed the love of the bow on to her kids. When her kids started getting old enough to be able to start competing, the nearest archery team was Downwind Archery in Ririe.

Realizing her’s probably weren’t the only kids in the area who were interested in competitive archery, Crapo got together with Richard Lee and Ronda Baily and started Blue Ridge Archers.

Blue Ridge Archers and Downwind Archery are both part of the national archery organization Scholastic 3-D Archery.

“The mission of the … Scholastic 3-D Archery program is to foster, educate and guide youth in the areas of indoor 3-D, indoor target and outdoor target archery as well as safe, ethical bowhunting practices,” according to the S3DA website.

Crapo said archery is a sport that everyone can compete in regardless of athletic ability and it is a sport that kids won’t outgrow.

“It’s been really great. I’ve had a ton of fun,” Benson Ricks, 15, of Goshen, told Community Pioneer.

Ricks joined the team back in December. He didn’t have his own bow at the time but said Crapo let him borrow a longbow until he got a bow of his own.

“It’s just something I’ve always wanted to do. I thought it would be a really cool skill to have. And I want to learn how to hunt with a bow,” Ricks said.

Blue Ridge Archery meets and practices at the Blackfoot River Bowmen archery club’s indoor shooting range in Blackfoot.

“We are especially grateful to Blackfoot River Bowmen for allowing us to use their indoor range for practices and competitions. We appreciate their continued support as we bring youth into the sport and work to promote all aspects of archery, from target archery to hunting,” Crapo said.

Blue Ridge Archery is competing at the state championships in Ririe on Saturday, Feb. 19.