ASLC brought a new intramural sport to Linfield called archery tag, which was played from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. Monday through Thursday during April 10 to 27 in the upper gym of the HHPA.

ASLC Sports Director Bobby Tarnapoll was in charge of bringing the IM sport to campus.

“Archery Tag is like dodgeball and paintball but with bows and arrows,” Tarnapoll said.

Cramer Harlow is one of four archery tag supervisors. “Characteristics that stem from paintball are the fact that protective masks are worn and there are barriers that players can strategically hide behind.”

“They are shooting objects at the other team and any type of hit counts other than off the ground or wall,” Harlow said.

Tarnapoll said he discovered archery tag through Facebook and thought students would really enjoy it.

“IM sports have gotten monotonous over the years and by replacing soccer with archery tag, I took a sport from a participation of 20 to archery tag with 86 people playing in the first year,” Tarnapoll said.

Jake Smith is another archery tag supervisor. “I think it is a great IM sport for Linfield because it is not common for people to have played it before, so everyone starts at the same level of skill,” Smith said.

“Everyone seems to say that it is the best IM sport yet,” he said.

There are five rounds in a game, and the first team to win three rounds wins. Each game lasts about an hour.

The teams consist of six players with the goal of catching a shot arrow or shooting an opponent with an arrow.

“Obviously it is nonlethal and because of the large foam tips, the arrows don’t leave a mark nor even hurt,” Tarnapoll said.

Each player starts with just a bow, and they have to run to the middle of the court to try to retrieve some of the 24 arrows.

Three blow-up barriers are on each side of the court, which are used to hide behind.

Linfield had 12 teams with up to eight players signed up for archery tag, and four teams played each night.

Although it ended on April 27, archery tag might start back up in May. Tarnapoll said to look for a campus wide email containing future information.