When Amy and Matt Davis opened their new business, 10X Archery Range, Platte City, they weren’t really sure how their exciting adventure was going to go. But, as they approach the first anniversary of the business, they are ecstatic about 10X’s success.
“The community has embraced us on this path and we are grateful for all of the support they have given to making this idea into reality,” Amy said.
The idea for 10X came to the couple in 2022, when Amy took a position coaching archery for Siegrist Elementary School. Matt was her volunteer assistant.
“We quickly realized that for a beginning elementary team to be competitive, the kids needed as much range time as possible,” Amy said. “Additionally, parents were asking where their archers could get private lessons.”
Since the closest range was in Independence, she knew how hard it would be for working parents to juggle their families’ evening home routine, and regularly spend an hour and a half travel time, plus an hour for the archery lesson. It wasn’t the best option for their busy lives.
“I faced this dilemma with my own son,” Amy said. “Matt is a visionary and came up with the idea of opening a local range, but finding a location that would accommodate a 15m range that was within budget for an uncertain adventure was a challenge.”
In the spring of 2023, the building at 229 Main Street became available for sale/lease, but the only space that was usable for archery was the basement, leaving the entire upstairs vacant.
“The cost of the lease for the space that we were going to utilize just didn’t make sense; especially for something we were not sure would work out or not,” Amy said. “So we put the idea aside thinking it was not the right time. However, it was only a few months later that Matt received an unexpected call from a man named Adam Grell. He and his wife Shana had recently purchased the building at 229 Main Street for their own business adventure, an indoor golf entertainment business, now known as Virtual Links Golf.”
When a mutual friend of theirs had told Grell that they were interested in turning the basement into a local archery range, he quickly called them to check to see if they were still interested.
“It was a perfect situation as we leased the basement and an office that they didn’t need,” Amy said. “Then the fun began - transforming it into an archery range!”
The couple’s son, Zachary had been interested in archery since 4th grade PE. He had tried out for the Compass archery team in 2019, and the Platte City Middle School team in 2021, but didn’t make it.
“His skill set was just not there,” Amy said. “Zach was determined. My husband had a background in archery, but wanted to know more on the teaching aspect of it to help Zach gain skill. He obtained coaching certifications through USA Archery level 1, 2 and 3 then convinced me to do the same. We worked with Zach through the summer prior to tryouts and he tried out again in fall of 2022 and made the PCMS archery team in 7th grade.”
10X provides four targets with the distance of 10/15m. The classes are small with four to six archers, in order for them to have more individualized attention during the lessons. There is also an outdoor 3D archery team that practices on the range and goes to tournaments once a month.
Summer classes are offered for beginning archers, and also for those who want to practice and improve.
Archery is a popular sport for kids and adults alike. While Amy and Matt focus primarily on the National Archery in School Program (NASP), adults are welcome also.
“We have had parents join in with our outdoor 3D team, and International Bowhunters Organization also offers competitive archery for adults,” Amy said. “If they are really serious, there is always the USA Archery Junior Olympic Archery Development Program. Coach Matt is working on obtaining his USA Archery Level 4 credential which would give him the skill-set to train future Olympians, should we cross paths with any aspiring archers.”
The outdoor 3D team competes once a month and Matt and Amy are hoping to have a bullseye team in the future.
Their first official class was in Sept., 2023 and they will be hosting an anniversary celebration on Aug. 31.
“We will be inviting the 100 archers that we have trained over the past year into the range to have a celebratory treat (cupcake/cookie), take a photo for our ‘wall of fame’ that we are putting together that will include their stats for the year, and then head down to the range to the target wall where they will get to shoot at balloons for prizes,” Amy said.
People who want their own equipment can order bows, arrows and targets from 10X. Matt currently offers custom bow strings and is experimenting with bow customization (paint schemes).
10X also hosts special events, such as Art-chery, where archers shoot paint-filled balloons on top of canvas, a glow-in-the-dark shoot where the range is set with black lights, and black light reactive paint is used for the target faces. Pick Your Target was also offered, with unique and fun target faces which archers got to choose. A planned event in October, called Spooky Shoot will have 3D targets such as ogres, howling wolves, crows, spiders, snakes, and more.
For Amy and Matt, watching archers learn the sport and become more and more skilled is very rewarding.
“Beginning archery takes a bit of patience on behalf of the archer as there are 11 steps to actually shooting,” Amy said. “Seeing the archer through this process and getting scoring arrows on a target is pretty cool. As they learn, their confidence grows, and seeing the smiles of accomplishment on their faces when they get that first 10 is priceless.”
One of their favorite memories is from their first month of classes, when a young person, Victoria Kallo, who had just moved to Platte City came to 10X.
“She had very minimal experience with archery, but wanted to try out for the Platte City Middle School archery team,” Amy said. “She picked up the bow and got to work. Her determination and dedication to archery drove her to earn a spot on the PCMS team after only two months of instruction. This alone was quite a feat as she was competing for the spot with kiddos who had been shooting for 3-4 years. She didn’t stop there; she practiced all the time; school practices, at home and continued classes at 10x. She earned her spot on the State/Nationals team for PCMS where she ended up finishing as the top female PCMS archer with a score of 284/300 at Nationals; ranking 60 out of 2,635 middle school female archers at that tournament. We asked Victoria what her goal for the next season is and she responded with 290. It is a very realistic and reachable goal for her and I am excited to watch her reach for it.”
For Matt and Amy the most rewarding part of operating their business for the past year has been getting to know people in the community.
“We have gotten to know so many great people through the archery program and our business,” Amy said. “Our business is located on Main Street, which has been an area that is trying to rebuild. It is nice to be a part of that as well.”
Matt and Amy emphasize that archery is for everyone and if people really want to see how far that idea stretches, they recommend googling ‘para-olympic archery’.
“If you have the desire to learn, you can,” Amy said. “Be patient and give yourself grace. It is a learning experience.”
Classes start monthly and are posted on the10X Archery Band at band.us/n/a2aa01Z673TfZ.