Amanda Gonzalez, president of the archery club at Kendall Campus, gathers members for practice next to the softball field.
After they’ve set up the targets and assembled their bows, the attending members perform stretches to loosen up. After the stretches, they take aim and start shooting arrows at the medium-range targets.
The club was founded this past fall semester by Gonzalez, who was vice president at the time, alongside her friend and former president, Amanda Robles, who stepped down as president this year.
Currently, the club has six members, each one having paid a $30 membership fee. The fee is used to purchase supplies such as T-shirts and bows and arrows so the organization can conduct practices each semester.
The practices last from noon to 2 p.m., Monday through Thursday.
Robles is happy to see the sport, which has been a passion of hers since she was young, taking flight at Kendall Campus
“I started archery when I was about seven or eight years old at a Christian summer camp, and I did it for every single summer for two years,” Robles said. “I fell in love with it the first day.”
The organization is hoping to spread its appreciation for the sport through the club. With that spirit in mind, the club welcomes athletes of varying levels, from the highly-skilled, to those who are novices. Members said they are eager to teach new members the simplest of actions, such as, how to properly shoot a bow accurately.
Part of the practices involve going over the mechanics of holding a bow, aiming their arrow, and releasing their arrow onto targets set up from afar.
Teaching isn’t only relegated to the most experienced archer. The club tries to promote an open-learning environment, where anyone can chip in and give each other advice or tips.
“Once they get the hang of it, [new members] will continue learning and developing, and whoever else is experienced, can also help too,” Gonzalez said.
In terms of funding, the majority of the club’s money comes from fundraisers such as bake sales, selling boxes of chocolate, boxes of candy, etc. The money raised from those events goes toward buying new bows, more arrows, equipment, and setting up future projects and trips.
Archery is a sport that requires a lot of time, practice, and repetition. It’s a very difficult sport to get into and these club members know it.
Most archery club members at Kendall Campus have had some prior history with the sport, while others joined the club completely new to the sport. One of the inexperienced members is Kenneth Guerrero, a student majoring in business administra
”Shooting a bow and arrow requires a lot of training and practice. I’m not that good at it, and I’ve been shooting for about two months,” Guerrero said. “I still have a long way to go before becoming good at it.”
Gonzalez has big plans for the future. Right now, the club is constrained to practices because they don’t have opposing teams to compete against. However, they hope to change that soon.
“Once we get better at shooting, I was thinking of maybe having competitions with F.I.U,” Gonzalez said. “I do want to go out of the state for competitions as well, so we can have experience at other states.”
For more information about the archery club at Kendall Campus, send an email to
amanda.gonzalez008@mymdc.net
