www.JennieRichardson.com

From a sports-related injury – to the introduction of a new high school sport, Jennie Richardson has been on the forefront of the innovative program, which has become known as the National Archery in the Schools program since 2001. 

Jennie, who was teaching at Whitley County Middle School, suffered a shoulder injury which ended her days as one of the top softball coaches in Kentucky, but she didn’t let that stop her. Working with her local pro shop, she learned to shoot her bow with her teeth “Tim Farmer-style” while she went through shoulder surgery and soon was back to shooting competitive archery. Her time in Semi-Pro classes didn’t last long – as she won seven out of 14 tournaments in 1998 and was named Cabela’s Shooter of the Year and won the World’s Championship. She is completing her seventh season as a professional archer, is a two time World Champion, has logged 87 Top 10 finishes, 26 Top 5 finishes, 21 Top 3 finishes and six wins. 

An avid bowhunter and angler since she was a child, she soon found an innovative way to integrate Archery into her middle school math class – the beginning step that paved the way for over 250,000 children per year to experience archery through the National Archery in the Schools Program in Kentucky. When a state newspaper published a story about Richardson’s large archery program at Whitley County, the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife contacted her and began conversations about archery in the schools. KDFWR had already been searching for ways to break down barriers and get archery into high school athletics and soon the development of the “On Target for Life” curriculum began– a forerunner of NASP, a joint venture between KDFWR and the Kentucky Department of Education. Now the program has grown and spread to over 36 states and 14 countries, with over a half-million students expected to go through the program by the end of 2007.

 Richardson and her husband, Michael, have two sons – Dustin and Justin, and they live in Williamsburg, Kentucky. She graduated from Cumberland College with her Bachelor’s Degree in Middle School education and received her Masters from Union College in Barbourville. She served as a Kentucky Math Specialist for four years, was named as Campbellsville University’s Teacher of the Year on three separate occasions and was recognized four times as Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers.

 She taught eighth grade math for 12 ½ years and coached for 15 years before accepting the position of Kentucky’s Coordinator for the NASP program.