The Danville Independent School District is expanding its athletic program offerings to students in grades 7-12 to include bowling and archery.

Interest meetings for the sports will be happening in the coming months. The coaches of both new teams introduced themselves and shared what they’re excited about. More information about these teams will be released as it becomes available.

BOWLING

 

Bowling will be coached by Head Coach Jed Roth and Assistant Coach Darren Fielder. The team will be open to both boys and girls, and depending on the number of players, there might be separate teams for boys and girls.

Both Roth and Fielder have been bowling for many years. Roth has bowled for the past 12 years and has coached for Boyle County Schools for eight years. He has also helped with a youth league for about four years. Fielder has been a bowler for about 35 years and has coached children individually for about four years.

Outside of their coaching experience, Roth is pricing integrity coordinator at Kroger, and Fielder is a youth pastor at Centenary Methodist Church.

Roth said the official season for bowling begins on Oct. 1, and he plans on holding an interest meeting sometime in September. The team will work around other sports and extracurricular activities so that students can be involved in as many sports and activities as possible.

“The biggest selling point is there is so much scholarship opportunity at the next level,” he said about the perks of joining the bowling team. “In youth league, they offer scholarship money. Youth tournaments offer scholarship money.”

Every student he has coached has had some opportunity or offer to bowl at the next level by the time they graduate, he said — colleges need bowlers and to fill their rosters.

Practices will take place at Danville Bowlarama twice a week. Students can use house shoes and balls and, once they reach a certain level, they can consider getting more advanced equipment. Students may even have the chance to win equipment at tournaments.

Fielder said the team will allow for lots of opportunity for one-on-one coaching and mentoring among peers.

“I’m looking forward to the kids having fun,” Fielder said. “One of the biggest things with bowling — any sport gets competitive, but if they’re having fun, they do so much better. And they really do have a blast.”

Roth said, “I’m excited for the opportunity to launch a new team and hopefully create something that kids can be a part of and can be proud of, and I want to help as many kids as possible. It’s a sport you can do forever, and you can network with so many people, and the next-level opportunities are endless.”

ARCHERY

 

 

Archery will be coached by Head Coach Eric Paycheck and Assistant Coach Jaymie Ross. Paycheck is a 6th grade social studies teacher at John W. Bate Middle School, and Ross is a 5th grade teacher at Edna L. Toliver Intermediate School.

The archery team will be open to boys and girls, who will all practice together. The season begins in November, and Paycheck plans to hold an interest meeting sometime around fall break for families.

Paycheck said he’s hoping to recruit 30 students to join the team, and there is more than enough equipment. The team has two drop cloths — which go behind targets to catch stray arrows — eight targets, target sleeves, 200 arrows, 30 quivers and 12 bows. He explained that since the team is brand-new, there’s a chance the team will be able to receive a grant to get more equipment too.

As for himself, Paycheck uses a bow and arrow for deer hunting and has been using a bow and arrow for about 15 years.

He said archery might be a good alternative for students who want to be involved in something but might not gravitate toward football or other contact sports. He’s excited about the addition of the team, since it allows Danville to offer a richer diversity of programs to students.

“The archery team is an opportunity for Danville to do more, be better, be faster, be stronger,” he said. “And I really care about Danville.”

Paycheck is a Danville High School graduate. He also attended Jennie Rogers Elementary School and Bate. He added that he was in Jeff Towns’ band. Towns is still the band teacher, at both Bate and DHS.

He said the archery team is “an opportunity for [students] to be a part of something,” and getting skilled at it involves repeating the same steps and simply spending time working with a bow.

“And before you know it, you’re an archer,” he said.