<strong>By Bob Sofaly</strong>

[caption id="attachment_48148" align="aligncenter" width="1020"]<a href="https://staging.yourislandnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/02052021-BA-Archery-tournament-2-2273.jpeg"><img class="size-large wp-image-48148" src="https://staging.yourislandnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/02052021-BA-Archery-tournament-2-2273-1024x639.jpeg" alt="" width="1020" height="637"></a> Bob Sofaly photo<br>Matthew Coyle gets ready to send his arrow to the target 15 meters away during Friday’s virtual archery tournament at Beaufort Academy. Archers shoot five arrows in an “end” at targets at distances of 10 and 15 meters per two-man teams and score the targets as one.[/caption]

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Beaufort Academy’s archery team participated in a virtual archery tournament Friday along with 11 other schools, according to BA’s archery coach Connie Ambrose.

“This has become a huge sport”, she said, noting that because of the virtual make up of Friday’s tournament the final results won’t be known for some time.

Ambrose said the S.C. Department of Natural Resources, in conjunction with National Archery in School’s, donated the 20-pound compound bows, arrows and targets to schools as long they agree to teach the sport. They even train the coaches.

Ambrose went on to say that the kids love it and look forward to competing in tournaments, which sometimes have more than a thousand students participating.

[caption id="attachment_48149" align="aligncenter" width="684"]<a href="https://staging.yourislandnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/02052021-BA-Archery-tournament_-1-228.jpeg"><img class="size-large wp-image-48149" src="https://staging.yourislandnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/02052021-BA-Archery-tournament_-1-228-684x1024.jpeg" alt="" width="684" height="1024"></a> Bob Sofaly photo<br>Patrick Good scores the target after a 15 meter “end” of five arrows per two-man team during Friday’s virtual archery tournament at Beaufort Academy. During an end, two people shoot at the same target with five arrows each and score all 10 arrows together as one score.[/caption]

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“We usually compete in the Charleston and Columbia areas. It’s really popular up there,” she said.

Each archer in a tournament will launch five arrows during an “end” at distances of 10 and 15 meters. Three ends are shot at each distance for an aggregate score. Bull’s-eyes are used as tiebreakers as top shooters Patrick Good and Nathaniel Nash found out Friday.

Nathaniel Nash was the top BA shooter of the day with a total score of 274 and 15 Bull’s-eyes. Meanwhile, teammate Patrick Good also shot a 274 but only scored 10 Bull’s-eyes, loosing to Nash by 5 Bull’s-eyes.

The top female shooter for BA was Brycen Amborse with a score of 251 with 4 Bull’s-eyes.