“You’re an archer, Harri(son),” Hagrid said, probably. 

Senior Harrison Stidom and the archery team are looking ahead to the new season with lots of new leadership and experience. 

In the preseason, the team is making sure that they get all the experience they can before their first tournament. So far, the seniors have stepped up into leadership roles and everything is falling into place. The team has strong goals for themselves that they are working towards reaching. 

In the opening weeks of practice, the team has been honing in on the basics to eliminate small errors that could hurt them in the long run. “We’re trying to get the fundamentals down and everyone up to speed,” Harrison Stidom said. Head Coach Alden Stidom also said, “We’re making sure to get in as many practices as possible. We are definitely drilling in on the basics. We have to step past a lot of those mental blocks our archers have.” The drill period of the season has greatly helped the team eliminate their past mistakes and has made them a better team. 

As the season has gone on so far, Harrison and the other seniors have assumed their roles and fallen into place. Alden said, “With the seniors this year, we have a couple that I feel that can step up and lead this team. We need them to step up and drive the team to success.” Harrison hopes to live up to his brother’s wish and fall into his role. “I want to step up and be a leader,” Harrison said. 

The sibling dynamic between Harrison and Alden has been interesting for the two of them so far. “It is kinda weird. It’s weird seeing the reins being turned over to him and the power is in his hands now to make the team what it used to be,” Harrison said. On the flip side, as the head coach, Alden has taken some time to adjust as well. He said, “It’s a little stressful for me. I have to remind him to be at his best at all times because I don’t want to have to sit him for grades or worry about anything that keeps him from shooting. I can’t make an exception just because he is my brother so I have been hammering that.” It has been an interesting dynamic so far but they have adjusted to it well. 

Alden has set goals for himself, as well as the team. In his first year as head coach, he wants to, “get the program back to what it was. It never went past the peak we used to have and I want to pick back up on that momentum,” Alden said. For the team, he stated, “We want to have stiffer competition and we want to hit our goal of 3400 as a team. We haven’t been able to constantly hit that and we want to reach that goal.” Alden has high standards for his archers but is confident that they can live up to his expectations. 

Harrison also has goals for himself such as stepping up as a leader and as an archer. “I’m hoping to shoot my all time highest score this season,” Harrison said. His hard offseason work and preseason fundamentals have propelled his skillset forward. 

During the season, the team will compete with a variety of schools across the state and country as well during larger scale tournaments. Alden said, “I’m really hoping that we can get back to the world tournament and I want to be closer competition to Bullitt Central. They are a fantastic school and we want to be able to compete with that again.”

The team is working hard to make sure they are well prepared for their first tournament in the coming weeks. Expectations are high and they have confidence in their skills to perform to their highest standards.

The archery team will compete in a virtual tournament Nov. 23 at Bullitt East.