EPISODE 1: Dr. Tommy Floyd NASP

The podcast features an interview with Dr. Tommy Floyd, the president of the National Archery in Schools Program (NASP). He discusses his background and how he got involved with NASP. Dr. Floyd shares his love for archery and how he has been promoting opportunities for success for kids through the program. NASP is a nonprofit organization that was started in 2002 and has since grown to include millions of students across the United States and other countries. The program aims to support educators and increase participation in the shooting sports. Dr. Floyd also explains how schools and students can get involved in NASP, highlighting the importance of introducing archery to new kids. The organization continues to grow and provide opportunities for kids to find success. Welcome to the Youth Sports Business Report Podcast. The most trusted name in youth sports. Welcome to the Youth Sports Business Report Podcast. I'm your host Cameron Cora and joining me today is Dr. Tommy Floyd, president at National Archery in Schools Program, better known as NASP. Welcome Tommy. Thank you Cameron. Great to be here and I really appreciate the opportunity. Yeah very excited to have you on today and learn a bit a bit more about the program and you and kind of what we have going on. So Tommy let's let's dive right in. You know we'd love to hear a little bit more about you and your background and how you got involved with NASP. Well thank you. I'm 61 years old. I live in Kentucky. I was almost a 31 year public school educator and administrator and here in Kentucky. I was everything except a guidance counselor during my career or media specialist. I was teacher, coach, football, principal, assistant principal, assistant superintendent, superintendent and I finished my career at the Department of Education as chief of staff. I've been with NASP since 2015 when I became the vice president and I became president three years ago. I am an avid outdoorsman but probably a thing that I would want to known about me is I've spent my life trying to put opportunities for success in front of kids and the National Archery in Schools Program has allowed me to do just that and it's been a wonderful opportunity to see kids experience this as you and I will no doubt talk about. Many of them have never experienced it before. Married, two children, four grandchildren. I love my Jesus Christ and I'm excited about what I do for the kids of NASP. That's incredible. That's incredible. It's a great story in the past and you know bright future ahead but you know the one question I wanted to ask is when did you pick up your first bow? Well actually that's a great question. My mother and dad gave me a light blue fiberglass Indian recurve and I was actually running around my house and my woods around my house and I became part of the invisible Indian tribe in my part of the world and I would go and explore and I shot bow. I shot bow all the way through middle school and high school. Started bow hunting. Couldn't really get a lot done until I could drive. As soon as I started driving I was bow hunting in earnest. I've taken several deer with my bow and turkeys with the bow and killed some some nice critters with the bow and you know as I get older like most archers it's as much about being out there. As I age my shoulders and things don't like the bow as much but I've been a bow person or an archery person all my life. When I was a high school principal I received an email from the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife saying that they had this archery program for kids so I called my best friend that I was bow hunting with at the time and I said you know hey man you want you want to you want to look at this NAST thing and I had no idea that that was going to be the way God would direct my path later on to become very involved in NAST to become a part of the NAST board help the people who make the equipment and later on become vice president and now president of the largest youth archery organization in the world and but but God knew that long ago when he showed me that light blue Indian fiberglass bow I just you know I've always been an Indian of an archery fan. I remember in high school didn't have a lot of money and I would I would work every odd job and I remember I would unload entire truck trailers full of tires at a tire store and the guy gave me a $50 bill and with that $50 bill one of the first things I bought with it was my first real dozen Easton double X 75 camouflage shafts and I hunted with those and I still have one of those in my garage so I actually killed a deer later in life with one of those shafts because they're kind of a kind of special to me so yeah archery fan most of all my life now that's that's incredible so great story there hopefully I can see that that bow one day and you know maybe get to shoot in one day but you know as we as we continue here more into NAST I'd love to you know just get a little background on the organization itself right how it came to be where it is today you know would love to see how it fits in the youth sports landscape that's that's ever-changing in today's world well I've already explained how I discovered it NAST is a 501c3 nonprofit which was begun in 2002 the idea originally stemmed from a partnership between Matthews archery the Kentucky Department of Education and the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife and all the leaders of those three organizations got together and they first were going to aim it towards a middle school competitive program just to give middle schoolers an opportunity to connect and to do things what's been the result is 22 years later 23 and a half million students have participated in NAST we're in 49 states in Canadian provinces we're in British Virgin Islands we're in New Zealand we have 1.3 million students in over 9,000 United States schools a year we have over 17,000 adults we call them basic archery instructors I call them role models and mentors and I know you you get that doing what you do these people teach far more than the the 11 steps of archery that we teach NAST has given out more than 4.6 million dollars in scholarship money because NAST has two main goals to support the mission of educators and to grow the sport increase participation in the shooting sports and we are accomplishing that if you and I connect again in a month or two and I hope we can I will have the results of the 2024 student survey perceptions of our kids and the data is amazing and I would and this is not this is not something that I concocted here this is something that our kids said and that's very powerful because not only does it talk about their satisfaction with becoming archers their satisfaction in connecting with their school and using archery is a motivating factor it talks about how it makes them feel and maybe that's something we can look at for the future but the organization continues to grow at about 1,300 new schools every year and it is a growing wonderful opportunity for kids to find success that's that's those are some staggering numbers and mission you know it speaks for itself and the longevity of the program and the builds that you guys are creating this is everlasting so very excited to dig into those numbers and connect again definitely and find out yeah it would be wonderful I love that yeah I love it definitely so you're speaking a little bit the kids and sometimes the parents and the teams and schools right can you give us a you know just a general brief overview of how you know these kids team schools get involved in the programming and and who can participate I guess I would love to first of all here's the truth for you every student regardless of what they look like or where they live every student in this world needs success they need to have something that they do that they feel good about themselves doing period I don't care who you're talking about that is a universal need of young people I'll tell you a little secret it's also true for adults but I'm not in that business I'm in the kid business so so here you are and you've never heard of NASC before we're in grades 4 through 12 we've got public schools private schools magnet schools home schools charter schools we've got every kind of school configuration we we operate in a partnership in each of our 49 states with fish and wildlife agencies and conservation organizations there's someone in each state that if anyone that hears this wants to get started in NASP and of course I've already shared and we'll share our web address where you can come find more information on how to get started so the school decides that this NASP thing is something they want to do so they they go to the school they get a teacher they get a principal on board someone is someone is selected to be the NASP teacher for that school they do what's called a basic archery instructor training it's a one-day event that makes them eligible to order equipment an equipment kit is somewhere about thirty three to thirty nine hundred dollars depending on the components what NASP does is we give equipment grants the state to offset that cost so that the cost is under $2,000 it's more like $1,500 for the for the school and then that teacher agrees to teach a minimum of ten hours a year in school instruction so this is really important these kids that walk into the gym and discover that archery is going to be what we're doing today our our recent student survey and our previous student survey says more than half of them are first-time archers in other words they've never even had a bow in their hands they've never thought about shooting archery I really believe to my core that the in-school requirement is what keeps us growing because we're not preaching to the choir that's right we're actually introducing archery to new kids so once that instruction takes place in that school many schools begin a competitive program that meets after school a lot of our teams here's a stat for you Cameron we had over 100,000 individuals compete in the tournament last year I mean the participation rate is unbelievable but still by and large the most of our archery occurs in a gym somewhere in a school an ROTC program an ag program or a PE program PE being the most common delivery so we have a really great graphic on our website on how to join the program and it's simply how do I get NASP into my school and that's at NASPSchools.org and and I'm sure when you put your information out you'll put our our link out to it but anybody that like would like to hear this if you're an outdoorsman and you're saying to yourself you know what am I doing to pass this thing on that I love so much if you're an archer or you just want to see kids succeed we'd love to hear from you we'd love to to connect with you and put you in contact with the people in your state that run the run the program and and offer you some support and and I'll tell you this anybody that tells us that they got this from your from your podcast website LinkedIn account any link to you I'll give them some additional support when they get ready and that's because you've been so kind to let us be on this program. Yeah that's that's incredible and now we're we're excited to have you and a little bit more because you know this is such a vital part keep kids active keep kids you know doing things that they love and getting outdoors even though a lot of it happens indoors but you know just going back to my high school days I know my my favorite day in PE was when they they rolled out the archery set so very very very intriguing so you know as we as we move past the you know the kids in the programs how do you see the parents getting involved whether that's you know you know bringing this to them you know they might be great great well how do you see the parents kind of playing a role well I think this I said it early you're in fourth or fifth grade you're going to make a lot of decisions about the rest of your life beginning about that time your friends begin to influence how you see certain things you make choices about what you participate in those choices often dictate who you're going to be around and you know what they say you quickly become acclimatized to the people in situations that you're around so when you're young you're going to acquire some of those attributes of your peer group so you've got these parents out there and they know that they're their child they want what's best for their child their stepchild their foster child their guardian of a child and they want to put they I see a lot of parents letting their children try to support it more than till they find that thing that they really like you probably have seen that to me for example mine was football I started at nine years old I played all the way through college it was who I was it was part of my identity now being an archer and a bowhunter at that time and and so on was my identity I just didn't tell everybody that but I wanted everybody know I was a football player not everybody can play football not everybody can sing in the choir not everybody can play in the band not everybody can play baseball or basketball not everybody can not everybody has both of their arms or both of their legs not everybody has emotional stability some people are cognitively challenged all kinds of things but here's what's true for everybody we all need to find some success I find the most commonly repeated story with NASP is the parent who comes to me and says hey my child has never been involved in a school activity and they absolutely love archery Cameron I hear that multiple times a year I do hear it yeah I mean I mean maybe there's somebody that hears this and they think to themselves you know there's there's got to be some kids that are going to benefit from this if they if they have the opportunity and and it may change their life you know one of our little slogans is changing lives one arrow at a time and we don't mean that to be a soundbite we really believe based on the feedback that we get from parents and grandparents and guardians that they're so happy that their child got plugged into NASP not just because of the shooting but of all the other attributes and I can talk about those focus dealing with pressure dealing on days that the arrow goes where you want it to go and dealing on dealing with days where the arrow won't go where you want it to go no matter what you do all those things prepare us for adulthood you and I both know the power of sport Cameron I think it's good for me to have butterflies in the belly it means I'm passionate about something I'm getting ready to do I don't like getting on the bus I like wearing the shirt I like showing up and representing my school and community I like going in a foreign place and seeing people where I live come through and sit in the bleachers and cheer me on Cameron there's millions never experienced that they don't know what that's like math kids find out and that's why parents grandparents and guardians are so crazy about what it does for them yeah just you know that that feeling is you know hard to replicate and with something like NASA it's great we can you know give that to the you know the athletes out there that might not be right you know in the traditional sports so once again programming is it's just phenomenal but shifting gears a little bit here into you know some more of the organizational standpoint of NASP right where do you host these events you know how many participants are and that typical events facilities locations how are they chosen okay great question most tournaments start at the local level I've already said that the teacher decide to teach programming PE or whatever kids get excited they want to form a competitive team they start shooting after school they shoot after school so many days a week so many months during the school year and this thing school I'm talking about they decide to host the tournament so they host a tournament other tournament other schools come buses arrive on a Saturday they get out they go in the gym they compete those schools usually support each other and the reason they do that is they turn these tournaments into fundraiser and they fundraise so they can go to their state tournament most of our states have a state tournament those are usually in the spring our first national event is inclusive of the top teams we have a Western National out in Sandy Utah about 4,000 kids participate in that we have an Eastern National in Louisville Kentucky and we had 15,000 archers last year 15,000 competitors in three days we take the we take the results of that and then we have the championship tournament this past year it was in Daytona Beach Florida next year it'll be in Myrtle Beach but it is the culminating the project if you would of our two national tournaments Wow so that's quite the kids can shoot at the local level they can shoot at the state level they can shoot at the at the national level and is there any sort of facility that you need for these types of events you know these are 15,000 athletes I'm assuming we're looking at convention centers here we use the Kentucky Expo Center here and the people the people in Louisville I would love to have you come next year and and visit us in the second weekend and pay you're officially invited Kim all right and come down and see this facility we use the whole thing we have bulls eye competitions we have 3d competitions where we have a partner with the International bowhunting organization and we we partner with IBO and they offer our 3d segment we have kids doing both it is it is an unbelievable sight to see 45 to 47,000 people come through the door to support these archers no no doubt I'll have to short my shot before I before I head down but you you're invited so it's a fish all right all right Tommy but I know we talked about you know scholarships a little bit you know 4.6 million I think you had said and supporting your mission right it seems like this is a very vital part of you know the mission not only it is located but you know the administrators like yourselves how did how does that come to be and where does you know these well we always come from we have some incredible partners all of our manufacturers that make the equipment that we use you see NASP only uses approved equipment so everybody shoots the same bow everybody shoots the same arrow there are no sites no releases it is truly about the kid in the boat period all these equipment manufacturers donate money to scholarships we've been doing this for many many years we gave away a hundred and twenty a hundred and twenty five hundred dollar scholarships last year at our three major events all the kid had to do to qualify was be registered for the tournament and show up if they showed up they were eligible for the tournament or sitting for the for the for the scholarship and and we award them and then they must use the money for a post-secondary activity we write the scholarship check to the institution they're going to end that's good for two year four year post-secondary training and you know when you start talking about scholarship dollars yes we have scholarships where state we do a state match hundreds of thousands of dollars with states they award scholarships and their state to kids we match that dollar those equipment manufacturers help us we help states we put in our own fun that's where the 4.65 comes from is a grand total of everything every partner state and national event but here's what we know it's really an investment in those kids future it's not just about archery every one of those kids need skills after they get out of high school if they're going to work with electrical they're going to work with welding if they're going to work in engineering or medicine all those things are going to require post-secondary something we believe that it is part of our mission to help provide funds to support that with young people that are going to eventually be adults so it ties right back into the mission and we're very proud of what we're doing in that regard yeah it's special but you don't really see that these days so so kudos to the team for building that into the program and building them for the mission I know it's something that is really true to what you guys have got going on and it is once again kudos to the partners and speaking of partners right you have a ton of great you know sponsored partners things of that nature you know are these have these stemmed from relationships that you guys have in the market yes you know partners come to you how do people get involved that they want to get involved right there seems to be multifaceted to any of your partnerships well that's a great question we're always looking for another good partner here's what I know people like to invest in kids finding success doesn't have to be archery but I promise if someone comes to me and says we want to invest in you several have Bass Pro Shops and Cabela's most recently has become one of our largest and trusted friends I mean they've given us $800,000 we have put 100% of their money into equipment grants for kids we didn't spend any of their money on on us as we promised we if a partner out there says you know I don't know much about archery but I really would like to get myself connected with an organization that's for kids we volunteer we can show you how your money would go directly to supporting kids in the program we can show you if it's a scholarship you want us to get involved in we're looking for people who want to invest in kids because while we might be an archery organization we're really all about the success of our kids yeah that that's that's amazing I know you know in the youth sports space itself sometimes it can get a little bit murky so you know great to see that you guys have such a friend you know knowledge with your with your partners and know where the money is going so so kudos to the team on that. Go ahead. We consider them friends. Yeah, love that. When we have success they have success. Okay. And if you're a if you're in anything a donor a manufacturer a sponsor a philanthropist or just somebody that says you know I'm investing in this and that I don't I'm not sure what my dollars are going for what's this NASP thing you know 22 and a half million kids there must be something going well here. Come talk to us. Come talk to me. Right that's a that's a large number and hard to beat especially in the in the youth sports world so you know as you know as NASP continues to grow would love to know any future goals and initiatives that you guys have you know how do you see program evolving coming years you talked about a couple international that sounds awesome so we'd love to hear anything in that regard. Well we of course if you look at a map of the United States if you come to our website you can find an interactive map showing where every NASP school is and the problem Cameron is not every school in the US is a NASP school so we've got our work cut out the next 10 presidents of NASP have their work cut out so everybody has to work hard to to get more kids exposed to the program because what what's really fun is 22, 21, 20, 19 years after I first started I still hear the same story my kid wasn't excited about school my student that my daughter my son my grandson my granddaughter I shook hands with one man at a tournament he said NASP saved my granddaughter's life and then he told me her story and she was going down the wrong road nothing nothing appealed to her at school she got to shoot an archery she fell in love she became a different person she went to college now she's a professional person she still shoots a bow but it wasn't the bow it was the success she found this is why you know I played college football and I know how I felt I felt such a commitment to my teammates and my coaches and my school and not everybody gets to do that I know how blessed I was to get to do that if you have a child that sits in a wheelchair has one arm can't see can't hear has emotional issues they can still play in our pool they can still be a part of NASP they might not be able to do some of these other things but they find a door and they find a welcome environment where they can find success and we're we're really proud about that because we have a number of students with handicaps that participate in our programming sometimes you have a car accident camera yep and then you're looking at I can't do the thing that I was used to that I was so happy doing now what do I do well I look for something else a lot of those something else's end up being us I love that I love that mission Tommy as we as we come to a close here you know you've been great and you know the inspirational you know notes that are coming from you are second to none so we'll love to close here with anything left that you have about NASP anything you know just in general about the your program or the eSports market in general right let the followers know where to find you or find NASP and how to get involved well first of all thank you for this opportunity great to talk about program it's also great to connect with someone it's doing such good work out there to connect people what's going on with sports in this country this great country that we need to keep and we need to get more boys and girls involved in something that's positive and can let them find success you can find anything you want to know about NASP at NASP schools all one word NASP schools dot o-r-g if you want to get a hold of me I'm Tommy dot Floyd t-o-m-m-y dot f-l-o-y-d at NASP schools dot org any listener that finds this information while listening to you please know this you don't have to be an archery expert that's fine we've got that part covered what we need are people who say I'm going to make a I'm going to make a difference you know Kevin we all only have so much time and I like it that we're spending our time helping young people find a path into something that they care so deeply about that it can be used as a leverage point for them to make great great decisions in their lives and maybe end up in a different place when they were on track to do to me that's that's that's worth time that's time well spent that's that's that's work worth doing like Teddy Roosevelt said and it's uh it's something that we're very passionate about we do what we love and we love what we do I mean an absolute pleasure to have you on yes sir I hope in a month or so and I'll give you those results of that student survey you'll be very happy incredible incredible we'll have a great rest of the day and we'll we'll see you yeah take care God bless you Cameron take care up there you as well yeah appreciate it take care bye