The Hall family has hit the mark in creating a family tradition—archery. The family has competed in many national archery tournaments for the past several years.
Most recently, Austin Hall, son of Matt Hall, competed in his first tournament outside of the U.S. in Nimes, France, taking home the silver medal in the men’s junior division for World Archery. This prestigious tournament hosts archers from all over the world.
“I’ve watched the tournament from when I first started archery, so it was really nice to be able to go there and place as high as I did,” said Austin.
Austin Hall, 17, has been doing archery since he was about 7 years old. The Bell Creek Academy senior has won multiple state championships and national medals. In 2019, he finished first at Easton Newberry Spider Cup Round 1, first in the NAA Indoor Florida Championship and first in the NFAA Florida Indoor Championship, to name a few, winning a total of nine state and local tournaments.
He likes archery because he enjoys individual sports more than he does team sports.
“Compared to other competitive sports, to me, it’s not as stressful. I played football for a few years and you kind of have to rely on other people, but in an individual sport like archery, it all comes down to you,” said Austin.
Austin’s sister, Alexis, 12, is also a very accomplished archer. Since 2017, Austin Hall Claims Archery Silver Medal In France, Sister Also Wins Titles she has won countless state and local tournaments. In 2017, she finished first at the S3DA National Outdoor Championship, becoming a national champion. In 2019, she won 12 state and local tournaments.
The siblings, as well as their father, Matt, travel the country to compete in archery tournaments. Matt also coaches one of the largest youth teams of competitive archers from Tampa, called Thunderstruck Archery.
The club is a parent-run team that shoots out of Adventures Archery in Tampa. It finances itself through fundraisers, concessions and sponsors to send the kids to nationals and other tournaments.
Matt picked up archery from his father, who was an avid hunter. The Hall family recently started competing in tournaments. They compete in 35-60 tournaments a year.
“Most people look at archery as a hunting activity and they don’t realize how big the sport is at a school level, or at an Olympic level, or a competitive level,” he said. “There are people that are against hunting, so they want to shut out archery, but there’s a whole other level that people just don’t realize, along with the discipline that you get from doing the sport.”
If you would like to donate to the club, you can message the group through its Facebook page, Thunderstruck Archery.
