SOUTH CHARLESTON, W.VA. — West Virginia’s annual Archery in the Schools tournament is going virtual this year and the state Division of Natural Resources is giving teams more chances to participate by extending the event to three days and removing a qualifying round.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has created some challenges, but archery is a safe sport where you can socially distance and we wanted to make sure kids have every opportunity to shoot sometime this year,” said Kayla Donathan, who coordinates WVDNR’s Archery in the Schools program.

This year’s tournament will take place from March 25-27 to allow school-based archery teams plenty of time for students to shoot competitive rounds in their own facility. The 2020 Archery in the Schools state tournament was cancelled due to COVID-19, making this year the first competition since 2019.

“In past years, teams had to qualify to make it to the state tournament. Because in-person tournaments are limited this year, we are opening the virtual state tournament to any school that has an archery program, which gives some students from smaller schools an opportunity to possibly place in the state tournament and move on to nationals,” Donathan said.

Teams will participate by shooting a competitive round and submitting scores through a database that will automatically rank and determine winners.

“We encourage all of our school archery programs to participate this year,” Donathan said.

For more information about the tournament format and rules, visit wvdnr.gov/archery/Tournament.shtm.

Donathan said the national tournament on May 6-8 also will be virtual and is open to any participating schools.

West Virginia’s Archery in the School program started in 2013 with 18 pilot schools and has since grown to include more than 300 schools across the state.