Editor’s Note: This is the last in a series of 10 features about clubs at West.
For a long time, Niles West has provided students the opportunity to create new clubs that they feel deserve a place at West or will interest many students. Senior Daniel Liu took advantage of this opportunity and created what is now known as archery club.
“My friend, he introduced me to archery and I liked it a lot. I think it’s a really fun thing to do and it helps people relieve stress. After I did archey one time outside of school, so I thought it would be fun if more students did archery,” Liu said.
Liu, who at the time had only been living in America for three years was a part of the English Language Learners program and it was at the ELL office that Liu took action and asked secretary Subica Rauf to sponsor the club.
“Daniel approached me and asked me if I could be the sponsor for the club and I agreed. At that time he didn’t speak much English and he had only come to America three years ago. I felt like it wad really bold move for an English Language Learner to come up with concept of creating a new club,” Rauf said.
From there on, archery club gained many members who found the club interesting and unique, reminding them of the deeply loved dystopian character, Katniss Everdeen.
“It’s something that most people don’t do and it’s unique and it’s also an adrenaline rush when you it the bullseye and it feels really good. I though it looked cool and like in the movies when they show Katniss or someone shooting a bow and arrow and I really wanted to try that. This is the closest I’m ever going to get to Katniss Everdeen,” junior June Choi said.
Since it was founded, archery club had been focused on teaching inexperienced students the techniques of archery and fundraising for equipment.
“For the past year and half, we’ve been practicing and teaching the students how to hold the bow and how to properly shoot the arrow and with that, we do a lot of fundraising because the equipment is really expensive,” Rauf said.
Not only have students learned how to shoot a bow and arrow properly, but they have also discovered that archery is a great way to relive stress and to let go of all their worries.
“It’s a great way for students to be interactive and it also teaches them eye and hand coordination between them and the target. I’ve also learned that it removes stress, students can just come in and practice and take their mind way from other things,” Rauf said.
As of this year, archery club is focused on preparing for tournaments in the near future and they hope to have some changes made to the club itself.
“My hope for the future is that students can take part in tournaments. We only have an outdoor range, not an indoor range, but if we were able to do that then we could get more students to join and have archery club at anytime because this is more of a seasonal sport,” Rauf said.
If you are interested in joining, archery club meets Thursdays after school in the ELL resource center and from there, they meet at the archery range located behind the football field.
