Without the decades of hard work and dedication of the late Waldo Cleland, archery in Mississippi would be a far cry from what it is today. All of his efforts will now be honored annually as the Cougar Classic archery tournament hosted by Columbia Academy, the biggest school archery event in the state outside of the state championships, has been renamed The Waldo Cleland Cougar Classic.
“It’s our honor to rename it The Waldo Cleland Cougar Classic,” CA archery coach Mike Barber said.
Cleland, who launched CA’s archery program, served as the director of Archery in Mississippi Schools (AIMS) for Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks and later was the head coach of Mississippi College’s archery program.
“It means a lot to us,” Wiley Cleland, Waldo’s son, said of the event being renamed. “He put a lot of time and effort into that archery program, not just Columbia Academy but into the whole state. He spread archery across the state. He really cared about the sport of archery and introducing it to the younger generation of children. He spent 18, 19 years doing so.”
Wiley, who excelled at archery at CA on top of starring in football, basketball and baseball, said one of his best memories of shooting archery was getting to participate in the All-Star shoot at Copiah-Lincoln Community College with Waldo in attendance.
“To have him there and be a part of it was special. It was something we both loved to do,” Wiley Cleland said. “Obviously I picked the baseball route through college, but there are days I do wonder, ‘Hey, should I have been shooting a bow?’”
The Waldo Cleland Cougar Classic is set to begin Feb. 13 and will run through Feb. 16 at the Columbia Expo Center, with 2,275 archers confirmed for the event. Barber said 55 school systems from all over the state will be competing, and the majority of them will have multiple teams (elementary, middle school and high school) shooting.
All six Marion County schools — CA, Columbia, East Marion, West Marion, Woodlawn Prep and New Hope Community Christian — will be participating in the tournament.
Barber said he’s also expecting to have the most vendors the event has ever had.
CA, which has won 26 state titles, is loaded once again this year with Barber saying this year’s squad having the most potential of any group the storied program has ever had. The Cougars were the Overall MAIS State Champions last year and the No. 3 team in the entire state behind a pair of large public schools.
“This team actually has more potential than any team I’ve ever had. That’s one thing to put on paper, but doing it is a different story,” Barber said. “We have the ability to get it done and the potential to do it, but when they line up they have to man up and put the score on paper.”
The Cougars will be led by freshman Cooper McNabb, sophomore Taylor Breland and freshman Bella Rowell, who was the top overall female archer in the state last year as an eighth grader.
Barber said the full schedule for The Waldo Cleland Cougar Classic will be released in the coming days.
