The archery program at Adairville School is just in its second year, but it already has something no other team in the state has – its own archery-only practice facility.

Thanks to the Red River Fish and Game Habitat and numerous community volunteers, the Archery Cardinals can now practice and hold meets in their very own facility, which was built as an addition to the Fish and Game Habitat building in Adairville.

“Having this is great great, because it allows us to practice whenever we want,” Adairville archery coach Steve Stratton said. “Last year when we were just getting started, we had to work around the basketball teams and the volleyball team for time in the gym.”

The archery-only practice facility cost about $32,000 to build, but costs were kept down because so many people volunteered their time and labor to get the project done.

“There was probably 20 people who actually drove a nail or two,” Stratton said. “We had 12 that were pretty regular. It was hard labor but it was a good group of people to work with – That really made it fun.”

The building, which measures 60 by 40 feet, was ready to use in early October. It helps save the team plenty of time. Last year when the team was practicing in the school gymnasium, the targets had to be put up at the beginning of each practice and taken down when practice was over.

Now, they can stay up all the time.

With plenty of parents volunteers who are willing to open the facility up during the week, getting in some extra practice time isn’t a problem for the Adairville archers.

“Our official practice days are Tuesday and Thursday,” Stratton said. “But you can find people in here just about every day.”

It’s also helped bring the community together.

“It’s really been a blessing to us as the archery team and the community as a whole too. We have a lot of parents and grandparents that come down and watch practice or shoot with their kids.”

Adairville will be hosting its annual shoot this weekend, but that will be held on Saturday at the school, rather than at the new practice facility.

“We only use the new building for practice only,” Stratton said. “It’s not really big enough to have a meet, because we don’t have anyplace for our fans to sit.”