Sports
Logan’s Shooting Stars Hit the Mark
By: Blake Baker
Posted on:
Scott Fickel is an avid archer. He grew up bow hunting, and continues the hobby today. But archery for sport never existed at any school he attended.
When Logan joined the National Archery in Schools Program (NASP) in 2008, he immediately noticed an interest from his daughter, then from her friends and other kids in the community.
“Most of our archers don’t do any kind of hunting,” Fickel said, “but for whatever reason, they just love shooting bows.”
Because he loved it too, Fickel agreed to coach the team, and that passion has resulted in dominance across the state. Since it joined NASP in 2008, Logan has become the most decorated archery team in Ohio.
Many of Logan’s archers start at young age and continue it until their graduation from Logan High School. Archers can join the program in fourth grade. Fickel’s daughter actually joined the program in second grade, showing just how eager kids in the community are to join.
“They do it in gym class, and they just eat it up,” Fickel said.
At all three levels – elementary, middle, and high school – Logan’s teams rule the circuit. Since 2012, the program has won eight state titles, one national title, and even a world title between all three teams. Overall, Logan has placed in the top five of a competition 60 times, including 21 first-place finishes.
Tessa Luicart joined the program in fourth grade. Now a sophomore at Logan High School, she has seen her fair share of success, and knows how important it is to maintain the success of the program.
“That really pushes you to want to do better and do your best so you can support this team,” she said.
A case filled with trophies is enough to get young archers interested. But as they grow older, and life beyond Logan looms, a larger future perk inspires archers to stay the course.
“There are college scholarships out there for archery,” Fickel said. “There are definitely college scholarships.”
While currently competing for Logan, Fickel encourages inclusion for kids without much of an athletic or social background to hone their skills in both areas. His archers certainly enjoy crushing competitions, but they say the success they’ve had in building relationships is the most rewarding.
“It’s really helped me expand my boundaries,” Luicart said. “Going to these tournaments, you have to reach out and talk to more people and it’s really helped my social skills.”
Athletic excellence seems to directly result from the establishment of these social skills, and it’s the latter that benefits the archers most within their own community.
However, Fickel’s program has built a robust reputation outside of just Logan, proven by a recent conversation the coach had with a fellow archery fanatic.
“This was all the way down in Georgia. I didn’t even know who that guy [was],” Fickel said. “I just said I was from Logan, Ohio and he said, ‘they have a really good NASP team.’”