‘Hunger Games,”Brave’ help stoke interest in archery

It's mesmerizing to look over an archer's shoulder and watch as the arrow he has just released arcs through the air and lands with a solid "thwap" on a target several yards away.

Seriously. Try it sometime.

And know what makes that already zenlike bit of cool even cooler? When the archer in question is an 11-year-old - Nathan Black, for example - trying his hand at an old sport that, thanks to the power of pop culture, has become hip all over again.

"The Hunger Games." The animated film "Brave." The new NBC series "Revolution" and the new CW series "Arrow." The summer blockbuster "The Avengers." All feature bow-wielding characters.

But, really, it's all about "The Hunger Games." That film - released in theaters in March and on DVD just a few weeks ago - and the trilogy of best-selling young adult novels upon which it was based has as its heroine Katniss Everdeen, a teenager who's wicked skilled with a bow and arrow.

Ever since watching Katniss do her thing on the silver screen, everybody, it seems, wants to be like Katniss.

Danny Nelson has seen it all from dual vantage points, as both archery manager at the retailer Sportsman's Warehouse and archery rangemaster and archery program coordinator at the Clark County Shooting Complex, 11357 N. Decatur Blvd.

"Since 'The Hunger Games' (movie) came out, we've had about a 20 percent spike in the industry," Nelson said, as well as "another spike about three weeks ago" with the film's DVD release.

These Katniss-inspired archers aren't just kids. Nelson said novice shooters at the county complex's archery range have been divided about evenly between kids and adults.

Back in April 2010, "we'd average maybe 30 (archery) shooters a week," Nelson recalls. By February of this year, the center was seeing 250 archers per month, and by April - after "The Hunger Games" had hit theaters - that monthly average had just about doubled.

These days, the facility's archery range hosts 850 to 900 shooters monthly, Nelson said. Included in that number are participants in a weekly archery league - it kicked off during the summer and was so popular that a fall league was created - and independent archers who stop by to hone their newly acquired skills.

Gabe Bozarth has been seeing the same thing - call it "The Katniss Effect" - at Pacific Archery Sales, the pro shop and indoor range he owns at 4084 Schiff Drive.

Bozarth said he actually began to see a spike in interest in archery even before the movie came out, when people still were getting to know Katniss through Suzanne Collins' trilogy of young adult novels.

Bozarth notes, too, that evidence of archery's current popularity also can be seen in TV ratings for archery events during the London Olympics. (NBC says archery was the most-watched cable channel sport, with an average of 1.5 million daytime viewers.)

For older newcomers to the sport, "it's something they've always wanted to do and never really had the opportunity to do, or knew of a place to do it," Bozarth says. "In the younger generation, yes, it was, 'I saw Hawkeye in 'The Avengers' ' or Katniss, or 'I want to be like that girl in 'Brave.' "

Absolutely none of this is surprising to Jim Marshall, who has spent the past several decades watching archery's popularity ebb and flow. He's vice president of Las Vegas Archers, which calls itself Las Vegas' oldest archery club, created in 1951.

Marshall has been shooting since he was about 5 - he's 54 now - and says his own grandchildren now are learning the sport.

That, Marshall suspects, points to one reason archery has remained such an enduring sport over the years: It's an affordable, family-friendly pursuit that even young kids can enjoy.

Consider Conner Arvelo who, during a recent practice session at the Clark County Shooting Complex, sent arrow after arrow sailing smack into his target.

Conner took up archery about eight months ago. He's 7 years old.

"I live a stone's throw from here, so I started to bring my bow out and shoot," says Conner's dad, Jose Arvelo, who has been shooting for several years. "So I took him out, too, and he shoots like crazy."

Archery is a great way for father and son to spend time together, Jose says. And why does Conner like archery?

"I really like my bow," he answers, "and I really want to use it."

John Nagazyna and his family stopped by to compete in the center's Wednesday archery league. John started shooting in May, and his wife, Doris, about seven weeks ago. Now, daughter Brooke, 5, also is learning to shoot.

"As a sport, it's something we can all do together," John says.

Nearby, a group of friends is finishing up their final rounds in league competition. Kayla Arndt, 23, says she's been shooting "seriously" for about three months.

"I always wanted to do it," she explains. "I broke up with my boyfriend and finally had time, and I decided I was going to do it."

Trent Villard, 15, said he was "dragged into" archery by a friend. But he found that he liked it, joined his school's archery club and "started coming out here."

Ana Marie Soares, 13, began shooting just over seven months ago. Her interest was piqued by the Percy Jackson and the Olympians book series, in which "they shot a recurve (bow) and never missed. I thought that was so cool."

"Then, when 'The Hunger Games' came out, I went to see the midnight showing," she says, adding that she previously had read the books in the trilogy probably about five times each.

Archery also can be a social sport, says Cody Jones, 14, who shot in the Girl Scouts but didn't have a chance to seriously pursue the sport until signing up for an archery basics class in April.

"Without this sport, I wouldn't have met good people like Ana and Trent," she says.

Nathan Black - his was the arrow you followed earlier - took up archery only a month ago and has been participating in league competition for only three weeks.

He says his interest in archery was piqued by "some of these shows I watch, but not mainly that. I saw somebody shoot a bow, and I always thought, man, that'd be cool."

One difference between archery and other sports is "you've got to have a lot of concentration," he says. "The only person who could bring you down is yourself."

For students, another way to enter the sport is through the National Archery in the Schools Program. Doug Nielsen, outdoor education supervisor for the Nevada Division of Wildlife, says the program was adopted in Nevada in 2009 and currently operates in more than 40 Nevada schools, most of them in Southern Nevada. The program offers instructional units about archery that can be incorporated into a school's physical education curriculum.

Nielsen, who also writes an outdoors column for the Las Vegas Review-Journal, says "The Hunger Games" probably sparked some interest in archery. But even before the movie's premiere, the national schools program was introducing young beginners to the sport, he adds.

Bozarth says archery isn't necessarily an expensive sport. Although a good adult bow for a beginner can cost a few hundred dollars, "it's really cheap to shoot," he says, because, unlike participants in other shooting sports, archers "recycle their ammo."

For beginners who prefer to rent equipment, Bozarth offers all-day rentals for $27 (which includes range fees), while the range fee for shooters who have their own equipment is $13. Also available are lessons for $40 (which includes range fees and equipment rental).

At the Clark County Shooting Complex, range fees are $7 per person (those younger than 18 shoot for free) for all day, equipment rental is $10 for the first hour and $20 for all day - families typically share one set of equipment - and a two-hour archery basics class held Saturdays from 10 a.m. to noon costs $10 for the class and $10 for equipment rental.

Nelson doesn't expect the current surge in archery interest to subside anytime soon. For one thing, he says, newcomers almost invariably find that they enjoy it.

For another, there are three more "Hunger Games" movies yet to be produced.

So, Nelson says, smiling, "the archery leagues, we expect a 10-year steady flow in interest because of that."

Contact reporter John Przybys at
jprzybys@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0280.