Encinitas Resident and Grauer Student, Spencer Wirick, Places Second Archer in the Nation at OAS National Competition

Encinitas, CA, May 06, 2016 --(PR.com)-- On Saturday, April 30th, Grauer High School Junior Spencer Wirick placed second in the nation in his High School boys category. In the constellation of monolith schools with matriculation in the thousands at each location there sits one school with its smallness being the most important part of its bigness. The Grauer School, whose headmaster Dr. Stuart Grauer, launched the school 25 years ago and who also created the Small Schools Coalition to support the philosophy that smaller schools provide elegant, creative, and balanced education not available elsewhere, has students placing at the very top of the crop of the nation's secondary school archers this year.

Alongside Wirick, classmate Joshua Brandel (‘17) placed 21st out of 75 Archers in that category’s competition. In the High School Girls category, Grauer School Junior Lily Nash placed 8th in the country, with Ariana Stevens (Grauer ’17) closing in on 12th place out of 58 national entrants. In the Middle School category, Jake Parker (Grauer ‘20) took 13th overall out of 75 Middle School boys in competition.

“We couldn't be more proud of this team both because of their continued dedication and the ongoing passion they possess for the sport of archery,” said Grauer Coach Trevor Olson of this year’s team. “This season truly was a foundation-laying season for the Grauer School’s archery program and the excitement for year three is already palpable.”

Olympic Archery in Schools (OAS) was created by the Easton Sports Development Foundation to offer youth the opportunity to participate, excel in Olympic-style archery, and open opportunities for them in the sport as well as increase the US pool of future Olympic team members and gold medal hopefuls. Schools of all shapes and sizes register their teams and individual archers for competition on a national level. This is Grauer's 2nd season in the OAS, however, they only introduced the sport into their extracurricular programming two years ago.

Seventeen-year-old Wirick said of the competition, “Our team has come so far in the two years we have competed, and in the past few months alone. When we first began competing, we struggled to match up to other local high schools, but we have grown so quickly and can now compete on the state and even national level. It's been amazing to be a part of the evolution of the program at Grauer.”

The odds of five from one small school of 150 students total placing in the top 25% of competing archers in the country is a story begging to be told. “Small schools enable talented kids, not only to find their people, but to find their passion,” said Headmaster Stuart Grauer from the stands at Saturday’s competition. Just after, loud chants of ‘Go Grauer Archers’ filled the indoor arena! Indeed, the mouse that roared!

About The Grauer School
The Grauer School, founded in 1991, is a grades 7-12 private, college preparatory school located in Encinitas, California. The school is a member of NAIS, accredited by WASC and serves as a successful educational model for hundreds of private schools around the world through the Small Schools Coalition (SSC), established by Dr. Stuart Grauer in 2011. To learn more about The Grauer School, visit www.grauerschool.com or call 760/944-6777.