Bennett Kraemer, 16, has done archery since he was 9 years old, so he had no hesitations joining the Austin High School X-treme Archers.

“My dad kind of taught me how to shoot at first, and I’ve mainly just done it for hunting,” Bennett said. “But I thought it’d be a fun opportunity to be able to have some experts help me along, have some coaches there to help me along, and also to practice and compete with some other students my age.”

Bennett is not the only student who is stringing his bow and gathering arrows every Tuesday and Thursday evening. He is one of 21 students who registered for the archery club through Austin Public Schools, new this year.

He hopes the club will help with his archery skills, but he said the main reason for joining was to simply have fun.

“With archery you’re always just trying to get a little bit better, a little bit more accurate, and so this is a fun way to do that,” he said. “And it’s also a great way to practice during the winter.”

The Austin High School X-treme Archers, comprised of Austin and Pacelli students, started in early February and will end March 26. The group of seventh- through 12th-graders meet at the Runnings store at 1400 18th Ave. NW Austin to practice shooting their bows.

For 15-year-old Cole Carter, it was a continuation from trap shooting and a way to hang out with friends that shared the interest. Cole started shooting in fifth grade and hopes to get better at bow shooting through the club.

The club was started after some students who have previously been involved in archery through Austin Park, Recreation and Forestry and AHS’s trap shooting team approached school organizers about starting the club, according to Activities Director Lisa Quednow. Archery at park and rec only goes through sixth grade. The Austin club has been going almost a month, and Quednow said, so far, so good.

“It sounds, from talking with the coaches, that it’s going really well,” she said.

Head coach Robert Maxfield was excited when he was approached about leading the club, but he noted he shares the spotlight with several other coaches, including Ann Maxfield, Paul Jenkins and Troy Derry.

Maxfield grew up shooting archery and was happy to partner with Runnings to use equipment and set up a small shooting range in the former auto section of the store.

“I’ve shot archery my entire life, since I was 5,” he said. “It relaxes me, I guess.”

He hopes the students learn proper mechanics and archery safety, among other things. But most of all, he wants them to have fun and find a love for the sport.

For 17-year-old Athena Hansen, the club was a way to continue doing something she enjoyed.

“I’ve been shooting since I was 10 or 12,” she said. “I started with the park and recreation and from that I kept shooting.”

Athena noted there were not many girls in the club — which currently has about five girls — and her friend wanted her to join.

“I was like, ‘why not,’” she said. “I like to do it, so might as well keep going.”

She hopes to continue the sport through another league somewhere after high school, and plans to do the 3-D shoots in the summer.

“It’s a lot of concentration and it’s dedication and just making sure you’re persistent; and form and technique is a lot of it, to make sure you’re on,” Athena said. “It’s to zone everything out.”

The club will likely continue next year since it has been fairly popular in its first year. Quednow is happy with the club and the partnership with Runnings.

“I just think it’s another great activity to offer our students,” she said. “Something that’s not necessarily a mainstream activity, that gets a few other students involved [in something] that they enjoy or would like to learn.”

Maxfield hopes to start the club in January next year to get more time shooting in the winter. He also hopes to partner with the National Archery in Schools Program, to allow the students the chance to compete at the state, national and international levels.

“Hopefully next year we will be affiliated with them too,” he said.

Quednow hopes the students will come home with more than just a better appreciation for bow hunting or the “Hunger Games” book/movie series, where the main character Katniss Everdeen is an archer.

“For all of our students in activities we hope that they learn life skills, relationships, leadership, working with other people, teamwork, time management,” Quednow said. “And of course the sport of archery which is fun for those who enjoy that.”