Kentucky

‘Archery is my life’: Student athlete sees more archery wins as funding is cut from Kentucky schools

Published

1 year ago

August 16, 2023

‘Archery is my life’: Student athlete sees more archery wins as funding is cut from Kentucky schools

Weekday broadcast of WYMT Mountain News at 5:30

JENKINS, Ky. (WYMT) – While one Letcher County student has been focused on bringing in more awards for her archery skills, schools across the commonwealth are seeing a loss of funding for their programs.

The 2022 Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (BSCA), an effort to come together on both sides of the aisle and improve school safety among other things, has received backlash from Kentucky officials this month.

Last week, a letter signed by Senators Stephen West, Phillip Wheeler and Johnnie Turner was accompanied by a call to action by Kentucky’s senate education chair, both letters asking President Joe Biden’s administration to correct a “misinterpretation” in the law to keep funding in place for school archery and hunting programs.

Senator Rand Paul sent a similar letter this week, co-signed by 18 other Senate Republicans, claiming the BSCA will be detrimental to students in the commonwealth.

“The Biden Administration’s purposeful misinterpretation of the gun control bill is attempting to take away valuable programs from students across the country. Hunter education and archery programs are beneficial to students both in rural and urban areas. We call on the Biden Administration to immediately withdraw the guidance and support these essential programs,” the letter included.

Some students impacted include Kimber Collins, an eighth-grader at Jenkins Independent who has used archery to find her focus- going as far as to say “archery is my life.”

“It’s helped me with my grades a lot. You know, you got to be a student athlete to do it so it’s helped me with my academics, it’s helped me socially-wise. It’s helped me come out and have a lot more friends and have a lot more fun in school,” she said.

The school archery program, she said, has been important in helping her hit the mark in and out of the classroom, allowing her to find balance between academics and athletics.

“I’ve seen archery change who she is,” said superintendent Damian Johnson. “It has helped her to grow and develop into a strong and confident young woman.”

Though she has no desire to be involved in the political side of the conversation, she hopes to continue using her bow and arrows well into the future. Last week, she brought home several more awards and $1,750 in scholarship funds for first place shooting at the International Bowhunting Organization’s World Championship.

“It’s amazing. It’s one of the best feelings to know you put in all that work and you got it out,” she said.

School administrators said the program has helped her grow, and they hope to continue providing a space where students can focus in on hitting the mark.

“This bill was passed with a good intention it was through a bipartisan effort to establish safer and healthier learning environments for our students but I think that it is now being misconstrued,” said Johnson.

He said the safety concerns should not warrant defunding, since the programs have not proven harmful to anyone. He does, however, find them useful to those who participate.

“I think that because of NASP (the National Archery in the Schools Program), and other programs like that, that students have a greater respect for deadly weapon safety,” he said.

Johnson said the district will look for other ways to keep the program shooting if federal funding is not an option, but he worries about the more than 100,000 students across the commonwealth who will lose out on the education and opportunities the sport provides. So, he hope the administration will clear up the concerns and provide guidance that will help keep the programs alive.

“I believe enough in the the importance of those programs to make those opportunities available to our to our kids,” said Johnson. “Even if it comes at a cost to us.”

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Kentucky

WKYT anchor’s daughter visits station

Published

2 hours ago

January 16, 2025

Press Room

LEXINGTON, Ky. (WKYT) – Fayette County students have been outside the classroom for more than a week now and that includes some of our own kids.

WKYT’s Victor Puente’s daughter, Vera, has had to come to work with him for the past few days.

We talked with Vera about what it’s been like being here at the station with us and this is what she shared.

“I think I’m liking since I got to be here two days in a row, it was so awesome. And also, like, I can just feel me raising up ‘cause this place is so cool, I wish I could be here instead of school,” Vera said.

Of course, Vera and the rest of Fayette County students will be back in school on Thursday.

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Kentucky

Texas A&M Aggies Coach Buzz Williams Deems Kentucky National Championship Contenders

Published

10 hours ago

January 15, 2025

Press Room

Texas A&M Aggies Coach Buzz Williams Deems Kentucky National Championship Contenders

The Texas A&M Aggies have had a good start to their season, but in a conference as cutthroat as the SEC is this year, good simply isn’t good enough.

After falling to No. 4 Alabama 94-88 on Saturday, the Aggies lost to another of the SEC’s top teams in No. 8 Kentucky 81-69 on Tuesday. A&M is now 13-4 on the season, but 2-2 in conference play with both of its losses coming against true national championship contenders.

Texas A&M Aggies head coach Buzz Williams during a game against the Kentucky Wildcats

Jan 14, 2025; Lexington, Kentucky, USA; Texas A&M Aggies head coach Buzz Williams yells to his players during the first half against the Kentucky Wildcats at Rupp Arena at Central Bank Center. Mandatory Credit: Jordan Prather-Imagn Images / Jordan Prather-Imagn Images

If the Aggies want to ascend to that level, then they can learn a thing or two from their recent opponents.

“They’re good enough to win the national championship,” head coach Buzz Williams said of Kentucky after the game. “… I think they play with great spirit. I think their coach has a phenomenal spirit. I think how he leads is the appropriate way, in 2025. You can tell. You can tell how they compete. You can tell how they play. You can tell by watching their huddles. You can tell how they’re in and out of substitutions.

Both Alabama and Kentucky have been among the SEC’s elite for some time now. The former just made its first Final Four appearance last year, and while the latter hasn’t had much postseason success over the past few years, Kentucky is one of the sport’s blue bloods and first-year head coach Mark Pope has breathed new life into the program.

The Aggies kept it close with both of those teams, but in order to assert themselves as a true championship contender, they’re going to have to win games like these throughout the season.

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Kentucky

Kentucky’s recent work on improving rebounding is paying off

Published

18 hours ago

January 15, 2025

Press Room

Kentucky’s recent work on improving rebounding is paying off

Kentucky basketball just secured their fifth top 15 win of the season, the most of any team in college basketball this season. Not just that, but the Wildcats outrebounded #11 Texas A&M, who is the best defensive rebounding team in the country, and showed some fight against the very physical and chippy Aggie squad. Amari Williams led the Wildcats with 12 rebounds, and guard Jaxson Robinson added 8 boards as Kentucky’s leading rebounders.

The Wildcats have pounding improving rebounding into their heads in the last few weeks, and the hard work in practice to improve that and be tough enough to attack the glass against very physical teams is now paying off. Mark Pope has taken notice, and he is loving their improvement in that area. It all starts with every play doing his part.

“One of the things we’ve been talking about is our guards making a bigger impact. Otega (Oweh) had 8 last game. Jax(son) (Robinson) had seven this game. That is a massive difference maker for us on the glass. It’s pretty great. …When our guys dig into a focus, it might not be an immediate payoff in a day but over the course of a week or two weeks or a month, these guys every single time answered the bell, actually got better. For us to be 40, 30 (rebound totals) and we are going to out offensive rebound them by one and we are going to hold two of the best offensive rebounders in the entire country, their starting five and backup five to only one offensive rebound between them, that’s an epic effort by our guys and I’m really proud. I’m saying that because we have so much respect for what Texas A&M does on the glass. They are incredible on the glass. …They offensive rebound 44% of the opportunities. That’s an insane number, and they came in as number one in the country.”
– Pope on Kentucky’s rebounding.

After Kentucky got absolutely bulied on the glass, out-physicalled there and a lot of other areas in their 12-point loss to Georgia, they have really answered all of the “soft” comments from people and have became much more physical and putting up better rebounding numbers. They’ll face another top rebounding team in the country in #4 Alabama on Saturday in Rupp Arena.

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