National champion athlete, coach, Rigney set high standards for Flames’ archery program

Sunday, January 26

Manhiem, PA

9:00 AM

Liberty University Club Sports

Easton Collegiate Tournament

Ian Rigney with his wife, Alysha, daughter Anna, 7 months, and son, James, 2

National champion athlete, coach, Rigney set high standards for Flames’ archery program

1/27/2025 5:57:00 PM | Archery

The program's most decorated archer won national titles as a student-athlete and as a coach in the U.S. Collegiate Archery Association indoor and outdoor competitions over his eight-year career at Liberty.

Ian Rigney shooting archery — Rigney practices with a compound bow on the 3D archery course set up on a forested range around the Liberty Mountain Gun Club.

Ian Rigney coaching portrait — Rigney was a student-athlete from 2012-16 and coach from 2016-19.

Ian Rigney, one of three members of Liberty University's 11th Club Sports Hall of Fame Class set to be inducted Jan. 31 in the Hancock Welcome Center, had a love of archery — as well as a love for the Lord — instilled in him at an early age.

"I joined the archery team (at Liberty) because I've been in archery ever since I was 8 years old," Rigney said during an interview with GameOn (now called Flames Central) in 2014. "It's what I do. I'm not a football player, I'm not a basketball player. Archery's my sport because … that's what I know."

Now an ordained pastor, he also knows his Bible, and how to communicate the truths found in God's Word to his teammates and competitors alike, both as a student-athlete and later assistant and head coach of the Flames and Lady Flames.

"I tried to the best of my ability," Rigney said. "I prayed before and after competition. That was definitely the central focus I tried to provide — centering not only the competition on Christ, but being around others, being a witness to Christ at the competitions."

He made it his goal to reach out to opposing archers and use the Word of God to pierce their hearts.

"Teams we were competing against, a lot of them were Christian universities, but a lot of them were not Christian based," Rigney said. "I tried to make sure that Liberty University's athletes represented Christ and represented Liberty well."

Though he doesn't compete much anymore, archery — bowhunting, in particular — is still a burning passion for Rigney, especially during hunting season.

"(When he was a student-athlete at Liberty) most all of the archery team members started out in bowhunting specifically to provide realistic shot opportunities at animals in the woods," Rigney said. "Indoor archery provides exciting, precise shooting opportunities, but indoor was something we had to do whereas 3D (outdoor archery) was something that we looked forward to doing."

Ian Rigney deer truck — Rigney began bowhunting as a way to harvest deer.

A four-time 3D outdoor and indoor individual national champion from 2012-17, Rigney was part of Liberty's first archery trio to capture a national title — in men's (team and individual) compound at the U.S. Collegiate Archery 3D Outdoor National Championships in 2012 (and again in 2013). He also earned an individual crown in that discipline before later adding three more national trophies to his quiver.

As a junior in 2015, Rigney was recognized at the Club Sports Choice Awards for turning in the Outstanding Performance of the Year by winning the 45th annual USCA Indoor National Championships in Lancaster, Pa., with a score of 1,178 out of a possible 1,200 points in the men's bowhunter division.

"The time I had as an athlete and coach on the archery team was the peak, climax, highlight of my career," Rigney said. "If had come into it later on, I don't think I would have had the success that I did."

Rigney served as a graduate assistant under Head Coach Mitch Reno (who will be his presenter at the induction ceremony) for three semesters before taking the reins as head coach for the Flames from 2017-19. He guided the Flames to a 3D outdoor team title in his first season at the helm in Oct. 2017. Members of that trio were current Flames Head Coach Jason Lynch and Assistant Coach Spencer Foster as well as Louis Boyd, who later won an individual men's bowhunting title at the USCA Indoor National Championships in Las Vegas in February 2018.

After completing his B.A. in Religious Studies with a concentration in Theology and Apologetics in 2016 and his M.A. in Theological Studies through the Rawlings School of Divinity in 2017, Rigney was ordained as pastor of Hitesburg Baptist Church in Virgilina, Va., near his hometown of Gretna.

He and his wife, Alysha, who completed her B.S. in Nursing in 2016, have two children, James, 2, and Anna, 7 months.

By Ted Allen/Staff Writer