By Connor Bell / Staff Writer

Missouri Valley College has added an archery program to athletics with plans to start in the Fall of 2024.

John McEachern was announced as the Head Coach as he previously was the Shotgun Sports Assistant Coach since 2017 and been around MVC since 2011. He has also been around archery for about 50 years. 

“I am most excited about getting a team started here at Valley because previously we had one person who was an archery shooter finish as a two-time All-American,” McEachern said.

Evan Baker shot archery and attended MVC from 2018-2022, during that time MVC didn’t have an archery team but they allowed him to compete. He went on to be an All-American and overall helped the school pursue an archery program.

“I feel like I had impact on MVC getting a team due to the time I was there I was always told a team wouldn’t be pursued and I’d be the one and only archer at MVC,” he said. “It wasn’t until after I graduated, I was recognized for a number of things I had accomplished there. I finally got the school’s full support to go ahead and start the team.”

McEachern has already got into recruiting for the new team and has some goals in mind for the Fall of 2024.

“The goal is to recruit as many Missouri archers as possible,” he said. “Believe it or not there are thousands of schools in the US that have National Archery Programs and Missouri has over 1000 of these. My expectation for the team is for us to come together, be willing to learn, leave egos at home, be competitive, and have fun being the best we could be.”