The small town of Pelion is home to a team that has won multiple state championships and is looking to win national and world championships for a second-straight year.

But the team isn’t composed of high school students. Nor even middle school students.

Since being started by Coach Colby Coulter in 2018, the Pelion Elementary School archery team has won five state championships, including bringing home the 2023 SC NASP titles in both bullseye (shooting a traditional target) and 3D (shooting animal-shaped targets at different distances) last month in Sumter.

Last year, the team won two tournaments that are seen by many as national championships and one that is seen as a world championship, feats it hopes to repeat in the coming months.

Coulter, who works as a physical education teacher at the school, told the Chronicle he thinks archery is a valuable opportunity for local students.

“Pelion has kind of been seen as the underachievers of the county,” he said of the town with a population of just more than 600. “And now they’re having an opportunity to shine at something that these kids have decided to take on. Not just statewide. Forget the state of South Carolina, we want to be the best regardless of where we travel.”

But despite the team’s quick rise to elite success, Coulter is afraid it might not compete after this year.

He’s leaving the school to follow his wife, who recently took a new job out of state. When he does, he’s not sure who the school will be able to tap to keep the team going.

Archery is a club sport, Coulter explained, so unlike something like high school football, where the coaches are often hired to also work as athletic directors and direct their focus toward competition, there is essentially no money in coaching elementary archery. After asking repeatedly, Coulter said he was finally given an $800 stipend for his coaching efforts this year, which he elected to split with his two assistant coaches when Lexington County School District 1 told him that there would be no additional stipends.

Like other archery teams throughout the Midlands and the state at large, the team must largely raise its own funds for equipment and the various expenses of traveling to competitions. The biggest money-makers are the tournaments the team hosts, with Coulter noting how helpful it is that teams are hungry to test themselves against a squad that has become a state and national power.

The team has gotten more help as it’s become more successful, with DNR paying its registration fees when it made the world championships last year and the district jumping on board to cover the hotel rooms.

But even with the clout the program has built up, keeping it going is hard.

“Archery requires a lot of dedication and devotion on the coach’s part,” Coulter said. “All the fundraising, the tournaments we put on, the team building, putting the practices together, all of that stuff has to be done by somebody who’s willing to do it, which for me, over the last four years, I’ve really enjoyed.”

“But everybody’s not similarly minded like that,” he continued. “So we have not been able to find a replacement to take over the team. So we are very, very worried that at the end of the season, the elementary team could cease to exist.”

Coulter said he has managed to find a parent to help pull things together so the current archers can continue to compete as they move on to the middle school level.

Responding to the Chronicle, the district said Pelion Elementary Principal Debbie Poole is actively seeking someone to take up Coulter’s mantle.

“Mr. Coulter has quickly established a winning tradition in archery at our school and he will be missed,” she said in a provided statement. “With the team’s championship record and the strong support from parents and community members, I am hopeful we will find a replacement with as much dedication and enthusiasm for the team as Mr. Coulter.”

As far as how much money it gives the archery team and its coaches, the district emphasized that it’s doing what it can.

“Lexington 1 supplements are based on multiple factors,” the district said in a statement. “Principals request supplements through the district’s annual budget process when an extracurricular activity, such as Archery, Beta Club, Student Council, etc., involves a substantial amount of time outside of an employee’s regular job duties and participation in competition, conferences, training, etc. Over the past few years, the district has made efforts to review the supplement process and make adjustments where needed.”