By Matt Ouellet
The Ryerson Archery Club is set to resume Feb. 2 after club officials put practices on hiatus due to accidental damage of equipment in the Kerr Hall Lower Gym.
The accident happened at the practice held on Jan. 22. An archer’s arrow, which was aimed toward a target at the opposite end of the gym, made a freak bounce off the target and hit the backboard of a basketball net above, shattering the glass.
“It cracked, but the [glass] didn’t fall down or break,” said Samson Chun San Wong, co-founder of the club. “We still needed to get everyone out of the gym, just in case the glass falls and goes everywhere.
The glass was cleaned up immediately after the incident, but the recreational activities scheduled for the rest of the day, including the first intramural soccer matches, were cancelled.
When the club returns on Monday, the archers will be shooting the width of the gym, rather than the length. Chun San Wong, along with coaches and representatives from Ryerson Recreation, are continuing to discuss a long term solution, as the short term solution provided, while effective, does not allow for the more experienced archers to effectively challenge themselves.
When the original plan for the group was being designed, consideration was given to the backboards being exposed to possible damage, but according to Chun San Wong, the probability was extremely small.
“When we first designed the backstop netting, there were concerns that a backboard might get hit. We talked to other schools, which have similar setups, and we calculated the probability of anything happening and it was an acceptable risk,” he said. “Unless you aimed up there, it was extremely unlikely that it would get hit.”
Despite the early setbacks, Anthony Seymour, Manager of Recreation at Ryerson, is very happy with the success of the Archery club so far
“We were sold out basically before we started with 55 participants in the club,” he said. “It was probably the most successful club launch we’ve ever had.”
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