‘First Street Irregulars’
learning bowyer’s art

Grants bowyer Ed Scott instructs eleven-year-old Lionel Money of Gallup how to fire a long bow Wednesday, August 6 in Grants. Scott runs the free archery workshop to offer a positive activity for community youth.[photos by Cable Hoover / Independent]

By Helen Davis
Cibola County Bureau

GRANTS — The 10-month-old archery court near Grants Church of Christ has been around long enough to attract some regular archers.
Instructor and elite bowyer Ed Scott has been around long enough to have a few things to show and a few things to teach.

The archery backstop, visible on N. First Street across from the church, is the brainchild of Scott, who approached the church last year for help in building a basic facility where kids could learn a skill and get together. The church provides the field and parking lot.

Scott provides a lifetime of experience and the hand-made, semi-traditional bows students shoot in the classes. People are welcome to bring their own bows if they have them.

Scott’s bows are the old longbow style, with no recurve or mechanical parts.

“I am pretty low-tech,” he said. Recurve bows are welcome at the frequent archery get-togethers, but no compound bows are allowed. Scott said he prefers traditional, human operated bows.

Originally set up for young people from 2 to 18 years old, the irregular “program” is attracting parents, older learners and those returning to the sport as adults, along with the kids.

Wednesday evening Grants resident Dustin Dean said he had been an active archer and taught for 4-H in the past, but had gotten away from the sport for a while. Now he seems to be back.

Los Alamitos science teacher Chris Sarracino brought an additional target for last Wednesday’s 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. session; Scott and the church provide hand made targets for the two shooting areas at the site.

“Archery is something anyone can do — short, tall, fat. Football is skill dependent,” Sarracino said and added that sports as athletic as football require a specific body type, but archery is individual.

Sarracino, his wife Christine and two of their children, Mariah and Keaton, have “been coming” he said. “I’m not sure how we got involved. We’re real glad Ed’s doing this. We come down on our own sometimes; every time (Scott) has it, we come,” he said.

Christine Sarracino teaches archery at Los Alamitos, using compound bows in the indoor class, but the family bow is the traditional long bow style. Son Keaton has stuck with the archery long enough for Sarracino to commission Scott to make a custom fitted bow for the boy.

Lillian Andrews, 8, said she has come to archery lots of times and is pretty good. She said she likes the sport and will stick with it. Scott said the youngster is a regular and is getting pretty good.

Some of the Wednesday archers come alone or hop across the street from the Lincoln Apartments on archery day.

“These kids can shoot,” Sarracino observed after watching them over the months.

Jordan Tatum ,youth minister at the Church of Christ, said the shoots get a lot of kids from the apartments in the summer, as well as kids taking part in the church’s youth activities, held after the Wednesday evening service.

Tatum said the youth group also picks up kids from low-income apartments and brings them to the church for activities. Scott said he sometimes will take one of the bused kids home if they have permission from their parents to stay after the church bus leaves on the return trip.

The “First Street Irregulars” do not have a steady practice and class time. Scott said that they have met the last few Wednesdays and will met next week, but he will have to see how things go when school starts.

“Parents want their kids in bed early for school,” he noted. Information: Ed Scott (505) 287-8134.