Lac La Biche archers came home with 19 medals from the provincial archery tournament in Red Deer on April 2, one of the highest medal counts the local club has seen from one event.
President of the Lakeland Archers Rene Schaub says the local archery group took 38 archers aged 5-65 to the event and were one of the largest clubs to participate.
“We dominated in numbers,” he said, adding that the high medal count testifies to the popularity of the local club. “It shows how much we have grown.”
One of the club’s members, Ian Bouvier, was awarded Junior Male Athlete of the Year by the Alberta Target Archers Association.
Although several members of the archery club have won the award in the past, Schaub says it only adds to the club’s growth and success.
That growth has led to the local club being awarded the chance to host this year’s outdoor 3D provincials event on June 25 and 26. The outdoor event will see hundreds of shooters from across the province but Schaub hopes that several local archers will also be participating in the event. The group has already started to practice for outdoor 3D events by moving their animal targets to Jubilee hall, where the group has been practicing since the start of archery season.
“We’re very happy here. There’s more space and now the kids get to shoot together,” said the local archery club president, who was recently named president of the Alberta Target Archers Association, and Lac La Biche residents Mardere Birkill and Gerald Cardinal will also join Schaub on the provincial archery committee.
Schaub says having three people from LLB on the provincial committee will mean better representation for the area and for the local archers.
“It will be better representation and not all of the focus will be on Calgary,” he said.
The group has been told that they will have to move locations once the library and theatre has been built and were told by county officials that there is a spot for the growing group.
“It will be a smaller spot and we will probably lose at least 20 yards for shooting but we’re not going to fight it and we’re happy wherever we go,” said Schaub.
