Legends Archery team gets new equipment thanks to a grant from USA Archery.

USA Archery awarded Alexandria Technical and Community College a grant that supplies the college's new competitive archery team with an estimated $9,000 worth of equipment. 

Alexandria College announced in September 2023 that they would be launching the Legends Archery team making it the first 2-year college in Minnesota to offer competitive archery through USA Archery's Collegiate Archery Program.  

Since the announcement, head coach Dan Gates has been working hard at building the program. Shortly after the announcement of the team, Gates submitted Alexandria College as a candidate for a grant from USA Archery. The grant provides new collegiate archery programs assistance with start-up costs (equipment) and sponsor growth. On October 17th, Alexandria College was notified that they would be receiving a Collegiate Archery Program grant from USA Archery.   

The grant provides the program three American Whitetail target mats, three ExoStands, a USA Archery range rules Poster, a USA Archery steps of shooting poster, and a USA Archery collegiate archery program equipment kit. The equipment kit includes 12 recurve bows, arrows, arrow stands, targets, armguards and finger tabs, target mats, stands, and more. These materials will be a great asset for the college's newest athletics program.    

Coach Gates has been the driving force behind the Alexandria College Archery program. He and school officials believe an archery program will help grow the college's athletic department and attract new students.   

"This equipment would have been something we needed to purchase in order to create an archery range to get the Legends Archery program off the ground," Gates said. "Having the targets and stands alone will give us a great starting point for getting us up and running."   

Alexandria College officials are excited about the opportunities the archery program will bring to the college and thankful for the initiative of Dan Gates and the grant from USA Archery.