CSUN Archers Aim for Range on Campus

 

CSUN Archers at the range.

CSUN’s Raymond Paguia (center) is a state champion in archery. Photo by John McCoy, Daily News staff photographer.


Overnight successes in popular culture aren’t rare, and no one knows this better at the moment than the world-class CSUN archery club. The success of recent films like “The Hunger Games,” “Brave” and “The Avengers” have made a bow and arrow as fashionable as the latest pair of Air Jordan sneakers, and the club has seen a huge upswell in interest in archery. Unfortunately, that interest has cramped the team’s style, literally.

The nearly 300 CSUN students who want to join the current 27-member CSUN Archery club is necessitating a larger space to practice their craft. Now, under the tutelage of world-champion archer June Montenegro — a 2000 world champ with 18 national titles and 38 state championships — the bow-and-arrow Matadors are in search of a regular space on the Northridge campus to call home. Montenegro recently spoke to the Daily News about the quick rise of the sport’s popularity. “Before, it was just during the Olympics, then the interest slowed down,” she said.

Associated Students is actively looking for practice grounds for the growing number of archers. Until then, however, it will be all about range-hopping. (One of the places the CSUN archery club is currently practicing is in the backyard of Montenegro’s Granada Hills home.) They do it for the love of archery, hoping at some point they can practice on the campus they call home.

“[Archery is] awesome,” said Isabel Alagot, who joined CSUN Archery last semester. “All we want is a little area, a small range on this huge campus.”

Read more: CSUN Archers Look for a Place to Let Arrows Fly as ‘Hunger Games,’ Brings Many to Bow [Daily News]

,