On target
Youth athletes take to archery
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by Brian Hamilton, brian@theunion.com
Miles Ross must have been
about five years old the day he stumbled upon an archery range while walking
through a park in
It looked interesting enough,
so he thought he'd give it a shot.
Bullseye.
Miles had found his niche,
the sport for him.
"Now, I try to get out
here three to four times a week," he said. "But sometimes homework
can get it in the way."
Nine years after that walk in
the park, at ripe old age of 14, the Nevada Union freshman is the wily veteran
of a sharp-shooting crew that is taking
The Nevada County Sportsmen's
Club has supported youth programs for many years, including the use of its
archery range for a 4-H youth shoot one Saturday each month. That program
proved to be so popular that it spurred the creation of a Junior Olympic
Archery Development team - the "Nevada County Gold."
"It was heartbreaking
because the kids would fall in love with archery in the program and then they
would be like 'Now what do we do?' And all I could tell them was 'There's a
shop down in Rocklin where you can go,' but we didn't have anything like that
around here," said Claudia Stevenson, who teaches the 4-H program.
Seeing the
need for a local JOAD program, Stevenson quit her sales job and pursued the
creation of Archery Focus magazine (www.archeryfocus.com), offering her the flexibility to
serve as a JOAD instructor.
Thirty-five young archers
participated in the program's first session about 18 months ago, but eight of
those youngsters showed enough promise to produce a competitive team.
"These eight kind of graduated
to an advanced level. A lot of them have aspirations to be on the National JOAD
team and eventually try out for the Olympic team," said Charley Washburn,
who coaches the team alongside Steve Ross. "This is a very special group
of kids."
Miles Ross turned in the top
performance, capturing the Compound Cadet Men's Championship. Ben Mora
(Compound Cadet Men), Alden Harris (Olympic Cadet Men), Colin Winter (Olympic
Cub Men) and Gabe Ross (Compound Yeoman Men) each took second place in their
respective divisions.
Trelaina Borges took seventh
place among the Olympic Cub Women, while Gemma Goepel was eighth in the same
division. Nelson Harris finished ninth in the Olympic Cub Men.
Such a strong showing in
their first major contest was hardly beginner's luck, their coaches said. The
reason they did so well might boil down to the sport's most vital skill: the
ability to focus. Washburn said these eight archers aren't only sharp with
their aim.
"You have to have
absolute concentration with this," he said. "It's what I call getting
into that zone, where everything has to be out of mind."
The ability to concentrate
and shut out distractions is somewhat second nature to those who excel in their
schoolwork. At least that's the way Alden Harris, who Washburn called "a
natural" sees it. And when it comes to academic success, Alden knows what
he's talking about.
The 15-year-old home-schooled
student not only is taking chemistry and calculus at
"One really great thing
about (archery) is that it's not just a sport that takes physical power or
physicality - though being strong helps - but so much of it is in your
head," he said. " It takes focus and
accuracy and it teaches you how keep yourself stable.
"You have to put
everything you have into a shot to make it a good shot, both physically and
mentally."
That challenge keeps Alden,
as well as his teammates, coming back to the range several times a week. It's
also been intriguing enough to draw the interest of their parents.
"There's no such thing
as an 'archery mom,'" Alden said, "because
once they get out here, they want to do it. Then they become archers,
too."
That's true with several of
the Nevada County Gold parents, including Daryl and Becky Harris.
"I'd tried it back in seventh
grade at camp. I liked it, but never really heard of it again until we heard
about the 4-H program," Becky said. "The kids were doing it and Mom
has to come anyway, so I started.
"When you're shooting,
all your troubles go away. You don't worry about anything else - you can't if
you want to do well. We're really having a lot of fun. It's something I think
our family will continue to do for a long time. It's a sport you can enjoy at
all ages."