The emerald green field is peppered with several brightly colored circles in the distance. A snapping sound breaks the silence, immediately followed by a whoosh as an arrow pierces its target.
Las Positas’ club list has groups for a wide range of interests and activities, but at least one teaches its members a range of skills. Calm. Patience. Coordination and Balance.
One of LPC’s newest clubs, the Archery Club, offers all that and more. It started this semester and is free to join, holding meetings every Friday from 2:30 p.m. until 4 p.m., gathering at the LPC track. Their Instagram, [lpcarcheryclub] looks to spark engagement while providing updates on meeting times.
Allyson Lagodzinski, the club’s president, formed it in hopes of spreading her passion for archery to other Las Positas students. LPC already offers an archery class in the fall, in which the idea to form the club was born. The club now gives year-round access to equipment that would otherwise gather dust eight months of the year. It also allows people to learn and bond with one another at no cost to the members, club or campus.
Lagodzinski is partnered with Vice President Elias Paiva. The two advisors are Russel Jensen and Jason Craighead, the coach for men’s and women’s swim and men’s water polo.
Several club members like Jay Sien and Trevor Morita started by taking the archery class taught by Jason Craighead. Sien believes the club gives him an outlet to meet new people while adding something unique to his weekly calendar.
“I’m gonna show up because I enjoy it, it is like my only fun thing during the week,” Sien said.
Typically the club sees anywhere from 15 to 20 and sometimes upwards of 30 people depending on the weather conditions. Members look to take advantage of the free and otherwise unused equipment instead of paying to go to a range.
There is a variety of experience levels, ranging from beginners who have never picked up a bow, to more experienced archers who arrive with their personally-owned equipment. The club welcomes everyone regardless of their level; there are always experienced club members or advisors there to show newcomers the ropes.
Lagodzinski’s hope was that the club would expand the reach of the archery class on campus. She believes it to be beneficial for students to develop a new skill while also connecting with others with similar interests.
“I went to Humboldt my first year of college and I did the archery club there, and I liked it a lot,” Lagodzinski said. “I’ve been itching to get back into archery. So when they were interested in starting a club, I said let’s do it. I just thought it’d be good for the campus.”
Club co-advisor Jason Craighead said “there’s never been archery on our campus. It’s easy to do. It’s a skill sport, where we can work with students of all abilities to be able to participate and do something that’s fun, and you can definitely see positive results.”
“We’re creating opportunities,” Craighead added, “and those students are helping by giving back to the community and giving back to our classes and our college.”
Morita believes that “there is a lot of inspiration that can be taken from the [archery class] that can be applied to the club. [The] hope is that as the club gets more organized, there are more opportunities to go to the range and participate against other schools in friendly competitions.”
The Archery Club welcomes you to join them Fridays as they take aim at growing the club beyond the boundaries of a campus-only group.
Luke Vavuris is a staff writer for The Express. Follow him on X, formally Twitter, @Luke5068.