In this newsletter: |
Archival Archery Tshirts and more.... The marketplace for our T-shirts, sweatshirts, and assorted imprinted stuff has been updated. For a limited time, the image is our commemorative 25th anniversary logo. You can easily check it out and shop at this link.  If you like showing the world you are an archer, and like stylin' it in A wayyyyy then order your shirt today. This logo will not be around long! In addition, all participants of the Archival Archery Championship events in 2007 (The State Indoor, Field, JOAD Target, and Target championships) will receive one of these pins, up to a total of two pins (for two different events). Additional pins can be purchased from the Board Members (Rick Stonebraker, Tom Barker, Gina Carmichael) at these events for $2.00 each - they make a great quiver pin. Quantities are limited. |
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State Field 2007 Results and Photos![[image]](file:///C:/Program%20Files/NE/Images/statefield2007.jpg) 29(!) new state records were set, and many folks had great fun.... For a full write up, results, and to view photos please follow this link.
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| Hometown Hero From the Victoria Online Media Group, in Victoria A: He's leading our youth on a straight path - volunteering his time as a coach in archery. Jessica Janiga introduces us to tom barker - our hometown hero. He walks out onto the archery range, student in tow, and gets ready to begin a new lesson, but Tom Barker doesn't get paid for what he does. He's strictly a volunteer archery coach. It's been that way since 1994. That's when Tom's son first picked up his bow and arrow, and at that point Tom says he realized archery was more than just your average sport. Out here on the archery range, everyone can be a winner. "Everybody can have a good day at the same time. It's not like you and I playing chess and one of us is going to win, one of us is going to loose. In archery, it's possible for both of us to shoot, both of us to shoot a personal best, both of us to have a good day. And so everybody goes home a winner," said Barker. So now that he found this sport where no one loses, Tom thought our community and our children should have an opportunity to take part. So for kids five and up he began coaching. He's coaching at the Archery Shop in Victoria or even in his own backyard. He does it up to 30 hours a week, broken down, that's practically every day of the year. Some of his students over the years have gone on to win national titles, and Tom has even stored away a few awards himself. In 2006 he was nominated and won the U.S. Archery Volunteers Coach of the Year. He was also one of only five finalists in the Olympic Sport Volunteer Coach Award. Still, despite the honors he's gained, Tom says the biggest satisfaction comes from the students and knowing he's showing these young archers a positive path in life. "I'm keeping them off drugs and out of the legal system, by shooting arrows," said Barker. So will he stop, and pass on the title to someone else? I wouldn't count it. "Probably there are some other things I should be doing, chores around the house, but at the end of the day, when I lay down at night, I say 'Here's another day I made a difference in a kid's life. With that, every thing's good," said Barker. Tom Barker, our hometown hero. Jessica Janiga, Newscenter 25. To view a great video and interview with this fantastic example of what this sport is all about, please |
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| Events Approach Information for registering online for the Archival Archery STATE TARGET JOAD (to be held on June 16-17) and the Archival Archery STATE TARGET (July 20-21) shoots have been posted on the website. The same as for the last 6 or 7 years, your online registration reserves you a spot on the line, and your registration check will not be deposited until the event is held. That way cancellations are painless and easy, taking only an email, and you help us plan the event by knowing numbers ahead of time. Thanks to the nifty web and the functions of Google, you can view satellite photos of both venues: Victoria Lago Vista! Way cool!In addition, JUNE 1 is the deadline for the National JOAD Target Championship. (This link is to an Acrobat Registration Form)Now, there is not a nicer venue for archery than the Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista, CA !! Don't miss a great opportunity and remember that this event is required for Jr. USAT ranking. |
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| Archival Archery Youth Archer Of The Year Award (TYAOTYA) The Archival Archery Board decided during the 2007 general meeting to take on a new project - rewarding youth archers for their dedication and commitment to the sport. Tom Barker agreed to take on this complicated task and has formulated the following criteria, endorsed by the board, for identifying the TYAOTY (Archival Archery Youth Archer Of The Year) for 2007. For archers to be eligible, they should compete in as many of the state events as possible, including the State Target and State JOAD events. (see the links elsewhere in this newsletter) To read the rest of this article, please click here... |
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How To Display Photos You will notice a change if you check into the Archival Archery photo galleries. I have adopted a new software for processing the photos I shoot at tournaments into webpages. The old way took a little time, and resulted in a reasonably easy way to view (and save to your computer) photos of your favorite archers in action.  )you can click on the numbers at the bottom, the thumbnails to each side, the quadrants of the photo being displayed, the name at the top of the frame, all sorts of ways to migrate around...The new photogallery I have started uses a newer generation of software to create the thumbnails, views, and links. It allows me greater freedom to alter the way the pages look, and I like very much the speed it has. The "NEW PHOTO GALLERY" link on the left hand border of the website will take you to the index of events with photos created using the new "JAlbum" software. The main page of each event has a logbook at the bottom. Feel free to leave comments to let me (and others) know what you think? Thanks... |
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| Tom Barker's Columns Tom Barker, archery coach of innumerable young 4-H and JOAD kids, has been writing a column for the Victoria Advocate newspaper for some time now. Initially, I assumed that the column was about archery, since Tom is such an integral part of archery in the south A region. Wow, I thought - how cool that the paper feels that there are enough archers in the readership to validate having a regular column in their paper about it. I was happily surprised to find out I was wrong (as well as right - that is usually the case with me). Tom writes about life and kids, and just happens to include aspects of archery as well. I have been able to put a few of his columns on our A website, where you can read them, print them, and share them with your own archers. They are just as useful for adults as they are for kids and if you have a moment or two you might just be surprised by some part of it. For example, his musings comparing competing in a head to head match with competing in life make a great statement about both everyday life AND archery. THIS LINK will take you directly to the article, and to view the other articles this link will navigate you to the appropriate spot on the DOCUMENTS page of the website. I think you'll find the article both entertaining and enlightening. Share it with a friend or one of your students. |
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| USIAC 2007 The UT Archery club, or at least 5 members of it, competed in the 2007 US Collegiate Championship this last few days. It's usually called USIAC, and I've been privileged to attend a couple of them now as a coach for the team. The archers attending these USIACs reflect the hope for tomorrow - young men and women on the cusp of independent adulthood, but still very much in the delightful "discovering the world" phase of adolescence. I've been to three or four, and have seen a huge growth in participation even as the support for our sport by universities themselves has vanished. Virtually all varsity programs for archery are now defunct. But the spirit of what archery is continues to grow the sport, as demonstrated by the increase in both the number of schools as well as the number of archers attending. USIAC is always "between a rock and a hard place" to attend - Outdoor season has only been going for a short time, especially for the northern schools. It comes at a time when some schools are still holding final semester exams, and graduation exercises also conflict with going on a 5 day road trip to some other part of the country to shoot arrows. Some regions, especially California, hold quarterly semesters instead of trimesters annually, so they have to cut classes for 3 or more days. Some are trying to land a summer job, and playing around with a bow and arrow are hard to justify if you have student debts and expenses hanging over your head. A number of the student archers at USIAC this year were "clubs of one" , or of two, or only three archers, while some powerhouses like A&M, Stanford, and James Madison University brought in the neighborhood of 20 archers each. Regardless there was an atmosphere of seriousness just as you would expect in a senior event, couple with a social nature that was yes, much like a JOAD event. USIACs are carried out in the traditional manner of "sportsmanship first, competition second" as far as I can see. For example, at one point a day or so ago, an archer failed to realize that her "CD" line was up - and her competition on the line didn't just note the fact and ignore it, they called out until that archer realized the problem and was able to step up. I can think of one adult event where the women on the line noted one was "indisposed", and just let her miss the end. Sure, they gained 30 points over her by doing so, but at what cost to their own self-esteem? Back in May of 2004 I put out a newsletter article on "colleges that support archery", and was able to find only a modest number of schools - 10 or so - that had organized archery clubs. Today that number has more than doubled, and there were over 200 archers pre-registered for the USIAC. In fact, collegiate archery is one of the most rapidly growing areas in US Target Archery! In addition, there is now a website dedicated to collegiate archery in the US thanks to the efforts of Bob Pian, Keri Granville, and most especially, Loretta Sinclair, whose impressive energy and drive have created a dynamic that is responsible for the growth and action. |
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