Trent Archery Club is one of the new fully formed clubs at Trent University. They are currently in their first full academic year and are gearing up for the years to come.

Trent Archery Club is currently located off campus at the Peterborough Multi Sport Club (PMSC) formerly known as Peterborough Fencing Club (PFC), due to concerns from the Trent Athletic Center about the weapon-based sport.

The Trent Archery Club is open both to Trent students and members of the community.

PMSC and Trent Archery have strategic partnering that has allowed Trent Archery to get off the ground and therefore, lay down roots for sustainability of the club.

“Having a program that is designed to go beyond a single generation is a hard task for a new club so we are hoping that through sport the student population and the executive will be able to learn how to build, share and pass on knowledge,” said Scott Nichols, head coach od PMSC on where Trent Archery is headed.

“People that can learn how to do that in sport, in my eyes are very employable. This could be as great as the students make it, and we can support that.”

PMSC allows for Trent Archery to have a full archery range with up-to-date equipment in a community environment.

Even though they are not located on campus their presence is still felt there. The Trent Archery Club will be hosting a two-hour seminar by Prof. Dan Longboat on the history and development of archery within the aboriginal community in Canada.

This seminar will take place on March 16 from 2p.m. to 4p.m. in the Ernie and Florence Gathering Space located in Gzowski College.

Archery is a very safe and inclusive sport that develops students both mentally and physically in a supportive, friendly environment. Trent Archery has worked hard alongside their student training coaches to help develop their students as leaders and athletes in the last year.

“We’ve had some growing pains, but we have seen a sustained interest from students,” Michael Schmidt, president of Trent Archery, stated.

“Based on the interest we’ve seen so far, we humbly estimate that we will see much higher numbers and interest as we continue year after year.”

They are a recreational club that is working toward being a competitive archery club sending their students out to compete alongside other university archery teams.

As the club is in its first year their main goal was to lay a foundation down for future generations to develop off of and expand.

“We have been working really hard to create a sound budget, a sound set of governing documents and to foster a culture amongst our initial membership that not only leads to the enjoyment of the sport, but also towards athletic and personal growth” Schmidt said about this year’s goals.

Next year they plan to build on the foundation and develop more competitively.

If students or members of the community have any questions or are interested in finding out more information they are urged to check the Trent Archery Facebook page.