19th Annual TSAA State Target Championship
Once per year for the last 19 years, archers
from the far reaches of the great state of Texas gather together for a
championship tournament, to launch arrows up to the length of a football field,
ambitiously aiming at a golden circle bullseye the size of a grapefruit.
On June 30th, 2001, a record number 76 archers
from the age of barely 6 to just over 60 years of youth gathered together on a
flat field of honor a mere 30 miles from the gulf coast in Victoria to do their
best in the 50,000-year old endeavor of archery. While the rain did hold off,
the mild to moderate winds did at times challenge all of the archers to shoot
their very best.
This was a national-tourney-caliber event held for a state-level championship.
At least 23 new state records were re-set during the fine tournament coordinated
by Tom & Marcia Barker of Victoria and Jim & Anita Krueger of Blessing,
TX.
The
Victoria Parks and Recreation department co-sponsored this event and provided the outstanding venue.
Marc Vendl , Victoria Parks and Recreation Specialist (mailto: mvendl@victoriatx.org), was the key contact for the city.
The Victoria Convention and Visitors Bureau arranged for the handouts at the Pepsi trailer.
We all owe a debt of gratitude to them for their help (hint). The local
television station KAVU also sent a news reporter and film crew to cover the event.
The positive nature of this year's tournament, the smoothness with which it ran,
the absence of confusion, problems, etc., despite nearly doubling the record for
the number of attendees for this event during the TSAA's 19-year history,
together shows what happens when everyone chips in and works together. You get a
first class tournament worthy of the hours of preparation the participants have
put in preparing for the archery competition.
Best of luck to those that are using this a springboard for State and National
4H tournaments, the NAA JOAD nationals, NAA National Target Championship, or the
FITA World Outdoor Championship.
Next year let us all commit ourselves to the worthy goal of introducing at least
one other person to the joy of target archery!
FROM THE TSAA PRESIDENT:
As President of the Texas State Archery Association and being around for the
whole 19 years the TSAA has existed, I want to say that the Texas State Target
Championship event over the weekend was probably the best state
championship to date. We finally did not have any rain and that is a rarity. We
did have a record turn out and analysis of the attendee demographics show that
the future of the organization lies in the youth. The previous record was 41
archers in 1996 and this past weekend we had 74 shooters. The "A" line alone was
40 shooters. Thanks goes to Tournament Director Tom Barker and his lovely wife
Marcia, as well as Jim & Anita Krueger, and Ben
Dybala. Accounts and registration by Gina Carmichael and internet registration
by Ron Carmichael. I better stop mentioning names at this point because I will
invariably miss someone and I do not want to do that. So, I will give a BIG
thanks to all the shooters and parents fro their help. The new TSAA tents was a
needed blessing in the Texas heat and we appreciate Ron and Gina's concern in
that area as well.
Good luck to Kathy Loesch and Guy Krueger as they represent TSAA and the USA at
the World Target Championship in Beijing, China in September.
BTW, the final distance on the water balloon lob measured out to 158 yards -
another TSAA record!
Rick Stonebraker
President TSAA
(editor note: pictures of the balloon launcher in action are on the website
photo summary of the event - see below)
Addendum: During the awards ceremony,
Judge/Sheriff/President Rick Stonebraker announced all the awards.
Failing to capture one of the eye-catching awards that he was in charge of
ordering, he claimed an
un-presented award for himself as fourth place recurve male senior. However, he
did not keep the
award after all but gave it to one of the juniors who did not get an award.
Tom Barker's Top Ten Favorite Questions of/ issues for the Tournament Director
(note- most of these are from the younger archers, but not all!)
10. What time does the 9:00 practice round start?
9. How many ends will we shoot in the practice time?
8. Do I shoot the same target today as I did yesterday?
7. Why can’t I check my draw length with an arrow in the bow while in the
spectator area?
6. When will the awards be ready? (asked not more than 30 seconds after the
first score sheet was turned in.)
5. Do I really have to have my name on my arrows?
4. Why do I have to put my name on my score sheet? You know who I am.
3. Why do I have to wait till the horn blows before I shoot?
2. When will we be done? (asked 2 minutes before shooting starts)
And the number one issue/question-
1. I wrote the wrong score down, what do I do?
Honorable mention: When asked where a missed arrow might have gone so as to
facilitate the search and rescue of the arrow, the most frequent response is
(drum roll please....): "I dunno."
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