Three Prairie Archers to Nationals
Taia Dressler, Devan Jacobson and Allison Davis qualified to shoot at the 2018 NASP Eastern Nationals in Louisville, Ky. on May 10 to May 12. (Photos submitted)
Members of the Prairie du Chien team compete in Cashton earlier this season.
The Martin Adkins Archery Club of Prairie du Chien comprised 23 of the more than 1,600 archers at the state competition in Wisconsin Dells.
The Martin Adkins Archery Club poses at the NASP State Tournament.
Three Prairie du Chien archers
to shoot at national competition
By Ted Pennekamp
On Friday, March 23, the Prairie du Chien School District’s archery team competed in the Wisconsin National Archery in the School’s Program (NASP) state competition at the Woodside Sports Complex in Wisconsin Dells.
Because of their high scores at the state competition, three team members qualified for the NASP Eastern Nationals to be held in Louisville, Ky. on May 10 to May 12.
More than 1,600 students from around the state competed in the Bullseye and 3D competitions at the state shoot to qualify for national competition. Teams must place first in the team competition for their division (elementary, middle, or high school) and individuals must place in the top 10 in their respective division at state to qualify for the national competition.
This year’s Prairie du Chien team produced two state champions in the 3D competition, Allison Davis - first out of 120 middle school girls and Taia Dressler - first out of 34 elementary girls. Taia Dressler also placed second out of 127 elementary girls in the Bullseye competition. Devan Jacobson placed 10th out of 95 middle school boys in the 3D competition to qualify for nationals.
“Allison, Taia and Devan are the first archers in our program to qualify for nationals,” said co-coach Brent Seamans. “These three, along with the rest of our team, have really dedicated themselves to becoming better archers over the last four months and they have seen the results.”
As a team, Prairie du Chien placed third out of 14 teams in the 3D competition and 10th out of 27 teams in the Bullseye competition at state.
“As a team, we set our record for total points in a competition at 3,069,” Seamans said. “We set six personal records at this competition.”
Caeleb Cipra just missed out on qualifying for nationals as he placed 11th out of 95 middle school boys in the 3D competition and 12th out of 200 middle school boys in the Bullseye competition.
Seamans said the team greatly appreciates its Gold Sponsors for their support. They include Jones Accounting, Bluff Country Long Spurs, NCS Gunsmithing and Sales and Cabela’s.
Seamans noted that all three of the archers who qualified for nationals have also earned the Academic Archer Award. The criteria for this honor includes having a GPA of at least 3.5 and high performance on and off the archery range.
Allison Davis is in the eighth grade. Her brother, Hunter Davis, a junior at Prairie du Chien High School, started shooting on the team while he was at Bluff View and Allison followed in his footsteps when she was in fourth grade.
Taia Dressler is a fifth-grader. This is her first year shooting on the team.
Devan Jacobson, an eighth-grader, has a twin brother, Dawson, who is also on the team. Devan has been on the team since sixth grade.
This year, the Prairie du Chien team had 23 archers. “Typically we have 25 to 30 kids on our team,” said Seamans. “Most of our kids are from Bluff View but usually we have one to three kids from the high school who continue to be a part of the program.”
Seamans said the team works hard and has had practice two mornings a week in the Bluff View gym since December.
The Prairie du Chien archery team is in its eighth season and shoots in three competitions each year, the Sparta Classic, the Xtreme Eagle Archery Competition in Cashton and the state competition.
Seamans noted that the late Craig Martin was very influential in getting the NASP into the Prairie du Chien School District with funds Martin received through the National Wild Turkey Federation. “Our club (the Martin Adkins Archery Club) is named after him as well as Pete Adkins,” said Seamans. “They both have been very involved in youth shooting sports and outdoor education programs in our community for many years.”
The team is in good hands and this year’s resounding success should boost the Martin Adkins Archery Club for years to come. Donations are always welcome, however.
Seamans and Kirby Kohler are co-coaches and also science teachers at Bluff View Intermediate School.
Seamans was certified to teach NASP in 2006 with the first group of teachers from Alaska to be certified when the program was first introduced to that state. He was teaching in Houston High School in Alaska at the time. When he moved to Prairie du Chien for the 2007-2008 school year, some equipment was already here, he just started incorporating the program into his science classes at the high school. Once he moved to Bluff View in the 2010-11 school year, he started a team and the program took off from there.
Kirby Kohler was hired before the 2011-12 school year and his passion for archery and students was a perfect fit to the program. Kohler is an avid traditional bowhunter and has contributed articles to Traditional Bowhunter Magazine.
