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Several local youth athletes competed in the USA Archery's Indoor Championships last weekend in Andover. All the archers train at Ace Archers, Inc. located in Foxboro.

The archers - John Pooley (Norwood), Robert Chin (Weymouth), Shane Polutcko (Mansfield) and Steven Kwan (Westborough) are coached by Tom Herrington. Herrington is the owner and nationally-certified archery coach at Ace Archers, Inc.

The National Indoor Championships attracted 500 archers this year, about 30-percent more than last year.

"The number of athletes attending the tournament this year was intimidating. There were over 500 with about 140 archers shooting at one time," said Herrington. "When the line change occurs, there are about 280 athletes changing places on the range. For most of my athletes this was their first National tournament and they were shocked by the sheer volume of competitors and spectators."

The tournament was run in two parts. The first, is primarily for the youth archers (6-18). They compete in age groups, shooting at paper targets at 18 meters (about 60 feet). This event is called The JOAD (Junior Olympic Archery Development) Championship. The JOAD program serves to develop future Olympians and is a training program run at Ace Archers. The second part of the tournament is called The National Indoor Championship and is open to athletes of all ages. This tournament involved two days of competition, whereby the scores from both days are combined to determine the regional champions. Two of the local archers, Pooley and Polutchko, participated in both tournaments.

"The archers were tired by the end of the weekend; but now the real work begins. We must get ready for the JOAD National Outdoors in Downingtown, Pennsylvania," added Herrington. "All the issues uncovered during this tournament must be addressed.

"I was pleasantly surprised by the performance of our athletes. This was John Pooley's third National Indoors Championships and he was confident. For Robert Chin, Steven Kwan and Shane Polutchko this was their first exposure to a large tournament. At first they were intimidated by the crowd, but within the two practice ends they calmed right down. I am very proud of all the athletes and how hard they worked to get ready for this weekend."

Any questions about the tournament or archery in general please call (508-697-5647) or stop by Ace Archers, Inc. at 131 Morse St., Foxboro, MA., 02035; or visit www.acearchers.com.

Foxboro archery range sponsoring tournament

Ace Archers, Inc. is hosting the 2009 Massachusetts Indoor Open on March 27-29. The tournament expects to have 80-100 participants and is open to all members of the National Archery Association (USA Archery) and the National Field Archery Association.

The tournament has shooting times of Friday at 7 p.m.; Saturday at 9 a.m., 1 p.m. and 4 p.m.; and Sunday at 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. Awards will be presented after the final competition on Sunday.

The tournament is attended by all archers of all ages, 6-years-old and older. There are three types of bows used - Olympic Recurve, FITA Compound and traditional bows. For the Olympic Recurve and traditional bows, the innermost scoring ring, worth 10 points, is 4-cm across (about the size of a half dollar). For the FITA Compound, the inner most scoring ring is 3-cm across (about the size of a nickel). The average archer will hit the ring about 50-percent of the time while the excellent archers will score 10's 90-percent of the time.

The public is welcome to enter or watch. Please call coach Tom Herrington at 508-697-5647 or visit the Ace Archers, Inc. Web site (http://www.acearchers.com) for more information.