Archery Team Continues Successful Tradition

Five years ago, teacher Rob Jellison offered to stay after school and give students from his science class archery lessons. That year, in 2007, eighteen kids stayed.

Last December, when Jellison held try-outs for what is now a varsity club at Hartland, 250 kids tried out from grades 4 through 12. Five teams were formed with two elementary school teams, two middle school teams and one high school team.

The little club, which began with a handful of students, continues to grow each year, gain momentum and be successful. The archers who made up the 2012 Hartland team earned the title of State Champions this year.

The success and size of the club, is mainly due to word of mouth, according to Jellison, but it’s also due to the fact that archery is a sport everyone can do and be successful at.

“Success is attainable for everyone,” Jellison said. “They don’t necessarily have to be a top-notch athlete-- they could be-- but they don’t have to be. It’s more a metal sport than a physical sport."

Hartland senior Shelby Simonds says that for her, the sport is a stress reliever. 

"I focus my problems on the target," she said.

In May, Jellison and his team travelled to Louisville, KY for the where the high school team, with over 400 teams (which need a total of 16 archers to be considered a team) competing and over 1000 school represented. The Hartland high school team came in with a ninth place finish.

and Jake Dickerson, two of Jellison’s original archers from his 2007 science class are now both seniors at Hartland. The ninth place finish is an accomplishment that the team is proud of, but some of the seniors say they could have done better.

“The seniors were trying too hard,” Dickerson said. “We wanted to go out with a bang, but it didn’t happen.”

For Jellison, however, the ninth place finished accomplished one of his team goals and will only motivate his team to do better next year.

“We’ve been trying so hard to hit the Top Ten and we finished in ninth place,” Jellison said. “If we would have shot our state score, we would have ended up in second place, so we know we can do it- it’s just like a carrot hanging in front of us, we want to go get it.”

For Simonds, Dickerson and four other seniors, they won’t get another chance to compete at the high school level, but some of them say this is a skill and a sport they hope to carry into the college careers as well.

But for Jellison, he says he will continue to run his program and if possible keep trying to accommodate as many archers as he can.

“If I have kids who want to shoot,” he said. “I want to get them involved.”

High School State Medal Winners

• Chris Bee – 2^nd place medal in the state
• Rajiv Dalian – 5^th place medal in the state
• Shelby Simonds – 3^rd place medal in the state
• Emily Bee – 4^th place medal in the state

Middle School State Medal Winners

• Brendan Dziobak – 1^st place medal in the state
• Paul Tiano – 5^th place in the state
• Betty Jellison – 1^st place in the state
• Nicole Tschirret – 4^th place in the state
• Mackenzie Taylor – 5^th place in the state

Elmentary School State Medal Winners

• Collin Pajot – 2^nd place in the state
• Derrick Loruss – 3^rd place in the state
• Nolan Sheffer – 4^th place in the state
• Colten Jason – 5^th place in the state
• Tara Petersen – 1^st place in the state
• Sydney Vivian – 2^nd place in the state
• Becca Paris – 5^th place in the state

High School End-of-Season Awards

• MVP Male Archer- Chris Bee
• MVP female Archer- Emily Bee
• Coaches Award – Kari Kantola
• Most Improved Archer – Jacob Popp
• Best “New” Archer – Nicolette Sexton
• Scholastic Archer – Mason Paul

The Hartland Archery team also had 29 out of 32 participants earn their academic scholar awards. Fourteen of these 29 also earned KLAA Conference Scholar Patches and Certificates.

High School Archers

Bee, Chris

Bee, Emily

Betoski, Jon

Bowman, Josh

Brown, Dallas

Caruso, Joe

Cooper, Chad

Dalian, Rajiv

Dickerson, Jake

Griffith, Gabrielle

Hinkle, Jessie

Kaczmarek, Mark

Kantola, Kari

Kesterson, Tyler

Machala, Katey

McDonald, Alex

Micallef, Kara

Paul, Mason

Petersen, Rachel

Popp, Jacob

Portelli, Sarah

Rushak, Jacob

Salerno, Dave

Sexton, Nicolette

Simonds, Shelby

Smith, Mitchell

Smith, Nic

Triltsch, Jared

Triltsch, Zach

Velliky, Greg

Vivian, Jack

Wilson, Madi

MS Archers

Allen, Grace

Behr, Tanner

Bratten, Alana

Brown , Kyle

Canny, Drew

Carr, Will

Carter, Riley

Dibble, David

Doyle, Devin

Dwyer, Joe

Kantola, Jake

Loruss, Lindsey

Lubeski, Brett

Page, MJ

Paquette, Kimberly

Paul, Konlan

Peters, Harper

Pousho, Julia

Reinbold, Dan

Robinson, Mark

Russell, Kevin

Sexton, Brandon

Sheffer, Kassidy

Simonds, Shane

Skinner, Logan

Spadafora, Joseph

Spare, Hunter

Tasich, Christian

Taylor, Mackenzie

Taylor, Victoria

Thomas, Brandon

Thompson, Tyler

Tiano, Paul

Wilson, Mackenzie

Elementary Archers

Beauchamp, Jacob

Bliznik, Arielle

Bulloch, Sawyer

Flatt, Collin

Frappier, Justin

Fraser, Anna

Germane, JB

Hartman, Jacob

Jason, Colten

Loruss, Derrick

Melby, Chris

Neuer, Griffin

Oliver, Austin

Pajot, Collin

Paris, Becca

Petersen, Tara

Rushak, Kyle

Russell, Drew

Sheffer, Nolan

Tasich, Elise

Taylor, Alexandria

Tiano, Michael

Triltsch, Olivia

VanEss, Dominick

Varcoe, Dustin

Vermillion, Nathan

Vivian, Sydney