Pascack Valley senior Amber Arbegast held her breath as her arrow flew through the air towards the awaiting target. A smile broke out upon her face as the arrow sank right down into the center.

Arbegast has had a passion for archery since she was in the seventh grade. It stemmed from a trip to a campground that had an archery course with her girl scout troop. After they had done the course, she decided that girl scouts wasn’t for her, but archery was.  

For five years now, Arbegast has been continuously practicing to improve her unique skill. Almost every other day, she could be found either in sessions with her coach in Saddle Brook or at the shooting range in the basement of her house. With all her practice, she is able to compete on a local level as well as a national one.

“I have been to nationals and the state championships and actually at the end of this month I am going to Vegas for the World Archery Festival,” said Arbegast. “My favorite part of all is going around the world and interacting with so many different people who have the same love for archery that I do.”

“I love the sport as it is, but my favorite part is traveling and meeting so many people,” Arbegast said. “I have met people from California, Arizona, Maryland, Texas, and Georgia. My best friend even lives in England. I know people all over from archery and it is amazing.”

With “The Hunger Games” series as popular as it is, Arbegast had mixed feelings about the archery aspect of it. She believes that it did give the sport attention and exposed it the public more than it already had been. It also recruited many kids to join so they too could be like Katniss Everdeen. Arbegast has been called Katniss ever since the movies have come out, and in theory she believes that she could indeed win the Hunger Games. 

Being a senior, there is definately a lot of decisions to make about college. Arbegast is not sure about everything yet, but she knows that she wants to pursue archery wherever she goes. Although she has not yet decided which school she wants to attend, she has gotten the opportunity to speak with a variety of coaches from all different schools.

“I’ve talked to the coaches at Texas A&M, UConn, and James Madison,” she said. “Since my personal coach is the coach at Columbia, through connections I have met many of the coaches and teams and talked with them about joining their archery programs.”

Overall, archery has thoroughly changed Arbegast’s life.  She has learned to be disciplined and patient since it is such a mental sport. It has also changed her self image to be more positive about herself and her skill.

“For archery, you really need to be focused at all times,” she said, “ and confident in yourself and your shooting.”