The Trigg County High School Athletic Hall of Fame inducted its 13th class on Saturday. This year’s class includes Benji Glunt (football), Ray Torian (basketball/baseball), Tom Patterson (archery coach), and the 1999 girls’ region championship golf team.
Tom’s knowledge of archery helped get Trigg County’s program off the ground in the early 2000s when Trigg was one of five pilot schools that began the National Archery in Schools Program.
Tom coached kids in the elementary school, middle school, and high school divisions before being named the head coach in 2010.
Trigg County won six high school national championships, five middle school national championships, and three elementary school national championships from 2005-14.
Tom coached several individual state NASP champions and several others that finished in the top five at the national level. He also had the privilege of coaching his daughters Sloane and Shaye, who both finished in the top ten at the state, national, and world divisions.
Trigg County also won NASP World Championships in 2012-13.
When the Kentucky High School Athletic Association sanctioned archery as a sport in 2013, Trigg County won three straight state titles.
The only other school in state history to win three state titles in the first three years the sport was offered was Lexington Catholic’s girls’ cross country teams in 1975-77.
In the nearly 90-year history of Trigg County High School, the archery program is the only sport to win three consecutive KHSAA state titles.
Tom was named the 2016 National Archery Coach of the Year and the 2016 KHSAA State Coach of the Year.
He was known for providing help out of his pocket for travel accommodations and equipment for students without financial means.
Tom also built a bow for a student with special needs that allowed him to compete and shoot from a wheelchair.
He was an original member of the Scholastic 3D Archery Program, earned his USCA College Coach Certification, and was named the head coach of the Murray State University archery program.
You can listen to some of Tom’s acceptance speech here.
