Outdoor Chattanooga is expanding its youth focus this fall with a middle school and high school archery league to go with the second year of the well-received interscholastic climbing league.
It's also offering for the first time a weekly after-school series of adventure instruction for ages 9-13.
Every Tuesday from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. the young participants will get to learn and practice the basics of climbing, mountain biking and archery. There will be three sessions each for each activity, starting next Tuesday with climbing at Coolidge Park, and the boys and girls taking part can sign up for one or all.
Group sizes will be kept small, but none have been filled yet.
"There are still openings for everything," Outdoor Chattanooga program coordinator Terri Chapin said Wednesday. "We have not tried this before, and we want to see what kind of response - what kind of demand - we have for programs such as this."
The Adventure Kids After-School Program will include climbing on the Walnut Wall next Tuesday and Oct. 6 and Nov. 3; mountain biking at Greenway Farm on Sept. 8, Oct. 13 and Nov. 10; and archery, also at Greenway Farm, on Sept. 15, Oct. 20 and Nov. 17. Each session costs $20 per person, and equipment is provided, although OC is hoping most of the bikers have their own bikes. OC does have three youth mountain bikes available for use.
Registration or more information is accessible at info@outdoorchattanooga.com or 643-6888.
The kids doing mountain biking do need to be able to ride a bike already, Chapin said, but off-road experience is not necessary.
"These are introductory-level classes," she emphasized.
The after-school archery is affiliated with the rapidly growing National Archery in Schools Program, as is the new interscholastic league Outdoor Chattanooga is organizing with River City Archery and its 10,000-square-foot building as host. An introductory meeting for interested coaches, teachers and school officials is set for next Thursday at 5:30 p.m. at the OC offices in Coolidge Park, and a fall tournament schedule is set for the Saturdays of Oct. 17 and 31 and Nov. 14 with the championship event on Dec.12.
The cost for that will be $10 per archer per tournament, so $40 will cover the entire season. The students will have their choice of compound, basic compound (Genesis or NASP type) or Olympic recurve bows.
Adults who want to get involved as coaches can take a Level 1 certification course for $25 starting on Sept. 5, and teams can schedule practices in River City's indoor range starting Sept. 21. Those can be public, private or home-school teams of five or more archers, or individuals can sign up from schools that don't have enough for a team.
Meanwhile, the interscholastic climbing league using area climbing gyms will have an introductory meeting Monday at 5:30 at Outdoor Chattanooga.
Chapin said that league already has grown from 12 school teams to 21 for this year, and more are welcome. Monday's meeting will be primarily a question-and-answer session for school representatives to learn how to start a team and where to get instruction.
All of these initiatives, Chapin pointed out, are with one main objective.
"These just are ways for kids to further be involved in a healthy lifestyle," she said.
Contact Ron Bush at rbush@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6291.