A senior who has spent more than three decades teaching archery is taking an active role in developing young men in the sport, which he said was linked to six pillars of character.

David Semos keeps himself busy each week by teaching the activity to a group that includes more than 30 young men.

The 75-year-old said it is a pastime that requires important character traits, and explained: “You have to be trustworthy and respectful, fair, caring, honour your citizenship and you must have integrity.”

Mr Semos said: “If we can get every parent, schoolteacher or coach to introduce these six pillars, we would make better human beings for Bermuda.

“We need to encourage this more in our sports education programmes and in our school system.”

He added: “If I had a platform where I can preach to people these things, then they might see how they can improve from this gang situation we have or we can also see how it impacts the schools.”

Mr Semos teaches archery at St Paul’s Anglican Church in Paget and the youngest student on his weekly schedule is five years old, while the others are mostly teenagers.

Eight archery students join him on Mondays, when he also teaches them other skills such as survival tactics.

On Tuesdays, Mr Semos runs an archery programme at Warwick Academy with middle and high school students.

With others, he co-ordinates activities on Fridays for the Bermuda Boys Brigade, in which scouting and other skills are taught to the young members.

The week comes together on a Saturday morning at the archery field at St Paul’s, where Mr Semos said he provides all the equipment to the students.

He said: “They all get the same six pillars of character on the field.

“I try to get them psychologically involved in the sport, and one of the things I always say is that we all learn differently.”

Mr Semos added: “While we have an established programme, we have children who just want to come and have fun, so their interest is in playing.

“So, it takes you longer to get your message to them but you have to be creative in the ways to get them to learn.”

He said most of his students are in school and he noted that there are some who have been involved in the programme for as long as a decade.

Mr Semos said the social issues faced by the island’s young people can be countered by more involvement of family in their lives.

He said: “What we need to do is to try to figure out how do we get the family unit back together so that the values of society can be instilled in them.

“The support needs to be there from when they are young to when they move out of their parents’ house.

“There is a big disconnect with separations and so the structure isn’t there for a lot of people.”

Mr Semos said parental support in various disciplines was important and parents often become involved in sports when they are interested in their child’s participation.

He added: “They’ll get involved in some way and we need that, and a lot of it.

“That is what I push because sometimes a parent would bring their child to do archery and I would put a bow in their hand and suddenly it’s now a parent-child activity.”

As he ages, Mr Semos said he has a dedicated support base to take up the slack in his later years, even as he works to identify an apprentice.

He explained: “I have a few people who, when the time comes, they will take over from me and continue on because I wouldn’t like to see this stop.

“When I was away in the hospital for three months last year, these people stepped up and they did a wonderful job.”

Mr Semos also teaches fencing on Wednesdays as an after-school programme to eight students.

He said that in the past some of his students went on to represent Bermuda on the international stage in the sport.

In recent years, he observed that some students were attracted to both sports because of films in which the characters use the equipment.

He said: “Nowadays we see a movie that comes out, such as the Disney movie Brave, and we see an interest drawn at the time and archery becomes a big thing for them.”

“We have our very own true lifesavers,” he added.