Alma Bryant archery team places 2nd at nationals

MOBILE, Ala. (WALA) - A local archery team had a sharp finish to their season. They just competed at nationals in Louisville, Ky. They came in second out of more than 250 schools. Not only did they bring home a trophy, each player was awarded a scholarship.

Alma Bryant has 24 archers on their roster and each one was awarded $750 in scholarship money. Today, they held a celebration and signed those scholarships as a team.

“You can be number one in history, but you can also make some history and that’s what we’re striving for. We were not the number one team in the country, but we were close.”

There are high expectations when it comes to the Hurricanes archery team. It’s a program that began back in 2006 and has seen continuous success over the years with a goal of being number one in the nation.

This year, they took one step closer to doing just that. Alma Bryant went up against 253 other programs at nationals placing second overall.

Freshmen Mia Cornelson and Talah Coleman are the number 1 and 3 archers in the state of Alabama. Cornelson finished with a score of 289 and placed 54th out of almost 2500 high school girls. Coleman finished with a score of 290 placing 34th, a huge accomplishment for both young archers.

Coleman says the Hurricanes had their eyes on that number 1 spot, but she’s still happy with how they competed.

“I’m definitely really proud of all of our teammates and everything. We shot and we fought really hard to earn second place, but I do feel like we could have done better and got first place.”

Today, the team was recognized as they signed their scholarships. Each archer received $750 to go towards their college education for a total of $18,000 in scholarships.

Sophomore Christopher Bellknap finished with a score of 293, placing 23rd out of over 2500 high school boys and freshmen Justin Anderson finished 38th out of over 730 9th graders. They were excited to win scholarships and hope to win more before they reach graduation in the future.

“Me and Justin still have a few years to go so we are going to try and stack up as much as we can and put it towards college. Like as soon as I found out we got second place and we got scholarships, I was so excited I was like yeah!”

Former head coach Roy Richardson still volunteers with the program since his stepson Miles has taken the reins. He has passed the torch to coach Wilson, and he’s excited for what’s to come.

“We’re wanting to do more 3D archery and not just the bullseye, so I think that’s where we are headed next, if we can get some support from the community, I think it’ll come.”

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