I meant to post this in the General forum but I guess I've got bows on my mind and put it in the bow forum. Only bow weirdos look at that forum this time of year so I moved it here. LOL

Our team showed out this weekend at the state 4H championship. Best I can count we got 30 medals. We had 13 shooters and 10 of them medalled. We started the team back up last year. Last year we had 3 kids that got medals and didn't win any team competitions. This year we took 2nd place overall in the Senior Division and was very close to winning it all. I don't have the list of medals yet, but IIRC our Junior shooters won 1st place in 3D and 2nd in FITA. We did win more medals than any other team. The young man in the middle is our top Senior shooter and he was the top individual shooter in the state, overall. There are two courses, FITA and 3D. He was the top scorer in both. He won 6 medals himself, and a belt buckle.

Our very own metalmuncher's grand daughter won 3 medals. She's on the front row. By the way, she shoots in the recurve, no sights division. I've been shooting a recurve for more than 25 years and I don't think I would have beaten her yesterday on the 3D course. Last year, her first year to shoot, she won 3rd place in the state. This year she won 1st place in FITA and 3D. She's a fairly dangerous young woman.

I have been blessed to be their coach and I've been blessed to have several parents that help me. I typically work with the new shooters and shooters who don't use sights and the young man in the middle of the back row and a couple of parents work with the kids who shoot tricked out compounds. All of the shooters, except 2 in the picture, started with us either this year or last. I'm so very proud of them and what they have accomplished in such a short time.

I'm very proud of my granddaughter. Or should I say we are all very proud of her.

But credit is due elsewhere too.

Brad has done an great job with these kids to come so far in such a short time. They have had some excellent coaching without a doubt. You want KIDS to win, you make it fun for them, and that makes the kids want to do better. That's the way he does it.

Brad, I can't thank you enough for the time and effort you put into it.


Here is a pic right after one of the very few stray shots my granddaughter made. All I can figure out is that there must have been a glare from somewhere that temporarily blinded her.

Congrats to you and them.

That was a distraction mm, but I was trying to distract the other team!

Thanks for the kudos. I enjoy it and I want them to enjoy it. I was glad that they did well, because there were a couple of coaches there yesterday that acted like they were coaching the Olympic team and I was sure happy to see our kids whip their teams.

Congrats to the kids and it's an amazing accomplishment (to me any way) that they did this in a year. And Brad gets props for seeing them thru to this accomplishment. Great job by all!

Thanks for the replies. I have always enjoyed working with kids and it probably helps me coach because I act like a kid most of the time.

The young man in the middle of the back row has been shooting for a long while and he's really, really good. He and the girl on the far left, back row are the ones that shot prior to us starting the club back up.

Well done, Brad! You've made a solid impact on those kids and their parents.

Thanks Andrew.

Congrats!!! My son shoots for the Danville team. He also shoots skeet and trap 4H. Yesterday they shot at a Invitational at Irondale and DAnville got first place overall team and one of our guys got first, beating 2 alabama freshman!!

That's awesome JDawg. Glad to hear it. We are in the process of trying to get the shotgun, rifle and pistol training done so that we can have a team for that too. My son is a natural with a pistol, much better than me and I want him to be able to compete in that.

Thanks, I really like it. my son's first year and he is really enjoying it!! We have a really good coach that has helped these guys alot and these boys can hit!! you guys should get into it and get a team going. Brewer has just started a team recently and is coming along pretty good as well. They had a kid that had to reshoot with 2 Bama freshman in trap and he placed third. Glad kids are doing this!! I wish I had the chance when i was in school!!

this is great. wish more schools had FFA, and more FFAs offered it. wonderful sport ...

Fur, I help coach the mobile county 4h archery club. It's me and a an employee of the 4h or county and about 30 kids most of the time so we don't see a whole lot of improvement in the shooting but the kids have a good time. I spend most of my time working on keeping things safe at practice. How often do you guys practice as a team? What's the coach to shooter ratio like? Ours is open to anyone in 4h over 8 or 9 years old I think so we have a lot of kids that come and go. Do you practice with a large group or break off the kids that want to compete and practice them separately?

hey Charlie, Our team ended up having 2 different practices after school each week. The older kids would practice on Wednesdays then Thursdays the smaller kids would practice. Seems this was the second year for our archery teams and there were more wanting to shoot this year so after a couple of practices they had try outs to kind of thin the crowd down to get ready for competition shoots. Our coach is limited as he also coaches basketball so he is overloaded between the sports. Glad he is such a good dude and takes the time to handle it all!!

We only shoot every other week for 2 hours so that is part of it. It's fun but it's time to step it up a notch.

That's awesome - congratulations!!

That's what we do too. EOW, 2 hours and we only practice for about 2 1/2 months a year, prior to the competition. If we practiced year round I've have them so screwed up they'd be shooting with their feet!

I try to have 2 or 3 other adults helping with the practice while we are shooting.

Thanks Tammy and thanks to everyone else who replied.