Six years ago, young Aubree Hernandez visited her grandfather’s home in Oregon on a family trip, unknowingly setting herself on a path that would last years into the future.

Looking back as a junior, she can target her passion of archery as having begun during the course of that very trip, through the inspiration of her grandfather.

After that visit, Hernandez began devoting her time to practicing every day for multiple hours and training herself to become better at her new-found love.

The regimented training was difficult, but within five months, Hernandez found herself winning third place in an archery competition.

Since then, Hernandez has been no stranger to the competitive spotlight.

One of her latest competitions, The Vegas Shoot, is one of the biggest archery competitions in Vegas.

There, Hernandez and well over 100 other archers decided to shoot their shot during the course of the three day event.

As a minor, Hernandez was only allowed to shoot in two of the three days, but that in no way dampened her competitive spirit.

“You shoot three, spot little targets and shoot, then shoot three ends,” Hernandez said. “The competition is getting a little bit more tough, because when you’re younger you shoot super close-up to the targets and when you’re older you have to shoot from 101 yards away. The competition gets tougher and it gets better.”

With competitions as difficult as this one, Hernandez’s father, Len Hernandez, has found that the experience challenges her competitively, which he hopes is something she will be able to take with her as the years go by.

“This competition… the mental aspect of the game really comes into play. It really has a lot of mental parts where you think it’s easy… and she has 104 other competitors that she’s going against,” Len said. “I hope she continues with archery and that she retains it to collegic level and helps others learn the sport and continue to shoot far into adulthood.”

Aubree, for whom archery is a part of everyday life, has grown up with her love of the sport and of the competition it promotes. She wants to share her passion with the rest of the student population at RHS by working to start an archery club for all students to gain the same unique experience that she has had.

“It’s not really common that schools have an archery club,” Aubree said. “I wanted to bring forward my passion for archery to other students.”

In the process, Aubree hope to uncover more students with some experience in the sport and convince them to be more willing to show off their skills.

“Some students do archery, but they don’t really say it just because they don’t do it as often, but bringing it here might get them out of their shell and might participate in school activities,” Aubree said. “It’s something different – something cool.”

Aubree believes that the club will set itself apart from other sports and clubs on campus, because archery is an accepting activity that anyone can pick up and learn.

She hopes the inclusivity will bring people together and encourage them to challenge themselves.

“What I love about [archery is that] it’s an all-person sport,” Aubree said. “You don’t have to have a skill…[and] have to have a built body for it, you can go out and pick up a bow and somebody can train you. It’s super simple. You can be four years old; you could be 80 years old and still shoot.”

Archery club adviser Jon Coleman – the past adviser for Roseville’s Trap Shooting Club – thinks that a club will interest students and bring attention to the sport and make it more widely known around campus.

“Now we have archery club hopefully our team will have time to grow, build membership and start entering competitions,” Coleman said. “High school has a place for everyone this is just one of those opportunities for kids to get involved and represent their school”

Archery club will begin practicing in the next two weeks for Roseville students interested in joining and training with the Archery Club, at MAYA Archers.