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Sports Last Updated: Apr 11, 2017 - 2:09:07 PM


The Sport of Archery Showing Growth in The Bahamas
By Felicity Ingraham
Apr 11, 2017 - 11:19:03 AM

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Courtesy call at Ministry of Youth, Sports & Culture (l-r) Senior Sports Officer Rupert Gardiner, Director of Sports Tim Munnings, Coach Laval Dee Falks, and Antonio Abraham

The sport of archery is steadily growing in The Bahamas with an enthusiastic club leading the way in creating more awareness and increasing membership.  The club, Archery Culture, recently hosted a United States level 5 coach to host a training session which certified nearly 20 Bahamians as basic instructors in the sport.  This bodes well for the future of archery, which is gaining growing interest in the country. 

Coach Laval Dee Falks travelled from Tennessee to New Providence to share decades of wisdom and skill for archery on the invite of Archery Culture's President, Antonio Abraham.  

Participants were engrossed in theory and practical and were tested in both areas before receiving certificates of participation.  Some of the attendees are already serving as coaches, and have gained a new and exciting skill.

"The Scholastic 3D Archery Basic Instructor Course led by Coach Falks was extremely interactive, fun and engaging," said Katie Roach.

"Coaches, Physical Education teachers and other attendees gained great insight into the culture of archery and left feeling very inspired to implement and develop introductory archery programs to their schools and communities."

The course is a part of a wider goal of Archery Culture to inspire the young people of the Bahamas in more positive activities.  Mr. Abraham notes that with kids, the sense of pride and accomplishment that they project when completing good sessions "is priceless".

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(l-r) Verel Davis, GSSSA President; Education senior official Keith Saunders; Deputy Director Marcellas Taylor; Coach Laval Dee Falks; and Antonio Abraham

"Archery presents a tremendous opportunity for The Bahamas to make its mark yet again on the world stage in another sport," he said.

"It also presents an opportunity to boost the tourism product in sports tourism.  I love to see people come to Archery Culture as complete newbies and with a few sessions, they are shooting with good form and producing tightly-grouped arrows."

Coach Falks said he considered it a pleasure to teach the group of Bahamians who qualified for the course.  Mr. Falks is the current National Federation Director of the Archery Shooters Association in America, a position which he had effectively held since 2002.   He is also the Head Coach and Director of Youth Archery for the Archery Shooters Association, having served in this post since 2007.

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Ministry of Education and Youth, Sports and Culture officials welcomed both Abraham and Falks for courtesy calls as the plans for the club were discussed and advice was given on both sides to make plans become reality for the benefit of the youth of the nation.  

The Archery Trade Association Community welcomed Coach Falks as its Range Development Consultant and Lead Instructor for the ATA Archery Academy, and he is also the USA Archery Junior Dream Team Coach.  He is responsible for the training and development of the nation’s most elite youth recurve archers.  His wife Marcia often lends her time assisting him with a busy career, which is only briefly mentioned here.  His work as a member of USA Archery International Team Staff makes him responsible for planning international event travel and administration for USA Archery teams.  While assigned as a Team Coach, Team Leader and/or Head Coach on 12 international tournaments, including the Youth Olympic Games, three World Archery Field Championships, three Youth Archery World Championships, three Pan Am Archery Championships and two European Youth Archery Championships.

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