July 8-11, 2004

NAA Press Release         Results        Photos

Aprilyn Witt, Brandon Hunt, Brady Ellison, Ryan Davis, Lindsay Pian and Maggie Huff competed in 2004 JOAD Outdoor National Championship Tournament near Atlanta, Georgia.

Almost 300 JOADs registered to compete.

Here is a recap of each day’s events. 

Day Zero, Wednesday, June 7, Travel day

Many Arizonans flew to Atlanta on Wednesday in order to get a jump on the 3 hour time change and be able to start practice early on practice day before the afternoon winds and rains.  Most stayed at the tournament hotel, Holiday Inn Conyers or one of the many hotels in the area.  Arriving the day before also allows time to “find the field” which can be challenging in unfamiliar territory.

Field layout:

The field consisted of three side-by-side soccer fields.  The archers shot in the southerly direction.  The tournament organizers have a good relationship with the parks system enlisting  the park staff  to stripe the field.  There were 73 FITA target bales and six practice bales.  The weather was typical Atlanta, hot and humid, 90 degrees F and 90% humidity.  Those that remember the last JOAD nationals on the same field were relieved that unlike last time the temperatures stayed below 100 degrees F.  Rain and thunderstorms threatened, but never materialized over the field. The field was lush green and standing water from the earlier day’s storms was gone after the first tournament day.

Day One, Thursday, June 8, Official Practice.

Practice was to begin at 10:00 AM.  A midnight severe thunderstorm, the evening before, blew over the archers canopies, main tent, leader board canopies as well as the targets and target stands.  The Georgia Archery Association and guest volunteers got things back in order to start practice only one hour behind schedule.  The practice went forward as the sound and timing systems were attended too.  As it turned out the timing light system used by last year in Denver took too much power for the generator to handle.   The digital timer and radios borrowed from the NAA eased the inconvenience.

Day one, afternoon, Randi Smith hosted the annual National JOAD committee meeting report, see the  unofficial meeting report below.

Day Two, Friday, June 9, First ½ FITA day, short Distances

The competition short distances were delayed as targets assignments had to be worked out due in part to confusion as to who wanted to shoot a 6-ring target vs. a 10-ring target.  Official practice began just after 9 AM.  Scoring began just after 10 AM.  The 12 ends took about 2 ½ hours to shoot.  A highlight was a perfect score (360) shot by two Junior Compound Male JOADs, including, Brandon Hunt of Glendale, Congratulations Brandon!  At midday a one-hour lunch break was taken and then the second shortest distances were shot.  Another 2 1/2 hours of shooting, the very long day was over.  Weather rolled in just as the second distance was being scored.  Forecast of worsening weather eventually cancelled the team round disappointing 48 teams as well as the tournament hosts.  Safety first.

The US Jr World Team and parents met at the end of the day to further organize plans for the 32 member US team travel plans.  The team travels and competes in England in less than a week.

Day Three, Saturday, June 10, Second ½ FITA day, long distances.

The day ran smoothly helped by the quick pace of the 6 arrow ends and now all were accustomed to the tournament routine.  Just as the last end was shot, the weather couldn't hold out anymore and a light shower began and ended.

The Arizona JOADs did well across the field.   

• Aprilyn Witt  -    2nd Female Junior Compound

• Brandon Hunt  - 7th Male Junior Compound

• Maggie Huff  -    3rd Female Cadet Recurve

• Brady Ellison -   1st Male Cadet Compound

• Ryan Davis  -     1st Male Cub Recurve

• Lindsay Pian  -  1st Female Junior Recurve

Congratulations to all for such outstanding performances.   Per the on field announcement, the FITA finish placement will be used for the National Championship and Jr USAT ranking.

Day Three Evening Banquet, Olympic Horse Park

A catered banquet with more than enough food took place in the former Equestrian 1996 Olympic venue.  NAA President, Mark Miller made a special trip and spoke about the NAA's, and FITA's focus on JOAD and the general wonderful experience JOAD can be. 

Banquet tickets also served as raffle tickets to win some nifty stuff including a Lancaster Archery donated Aurora bow case.

National Championship first, second and third place award plaques were presented in front of a crowd that grew to standing room only size.

As the banquet festivities ended, many went to watch the finals in the "Western Leisure" horse competition in the adjacent arena.

Day Four, Sunday, June 11, Olympic Round Day.

All were encouraged to compete in the OR.  OR participation was required to receive Jr USAT points.  Nerves set in  as all wondered what the day would bring.  The OR is an exercise in hurry up and wait and many must sit and wait while others play their matches.  Space and the numbers of judges prevent the OR from moving any faster.  The Junior, Cadet and Cub matches all went smoothly including some very exciting one-arrow tiebreakers.  All the bronze matches were shot at the same time followed by the gold matches.

Olympic Round results for Arizona

• April Witt shot in the Bronze medal match.

• Lindsay Pian won the Bronze medal.

• Ryan Davis took the Silver medal.

• Brady Ellison matched his National Championship with the OR Gold medal.

• Brandon Hunt and Maggie Huff were retired before the medal rounds.

The OR medals were awarded immediately after the final match.  Congratulations to all.

What a great experience.  Some flew midnight “red eyes” back to AZ after the OR.  Many stayed the night to unwind to be able travel showered and unrushed.  Four of the AZJOAD will travel to England as part of the US Jr World Championship team in mid to late July.  Some will also travel to Reading, PA in late July to compete in the Target Nationals.

2004 JOAD National Championship Summary

Pros

• Great hospitality

• Spacious, lush green fields

• Brand new white tail target matts and plenty of Tyvek faces

• Wide support target matt stands where no wood verticals were behind the six ring targets

• Fantastic Judges crew recruited by Neil Foster  (New judge John Stover apprenticed with Jane Johnson.)

• Leader board ran smoothly when the archers cooperated.

• Enough water, cups, shade, chairs and port a potties and the field crew kept the coolers full with ice-cold water.

• On site food concession was very convenient.

• Reminding all to drink water and wear sunscreen pays off.

• Nice tournament shirts, water bottles, and professional tournament photo CD

• The fully stocked Lancaster Archery store trailer!

• Plenty of space for spectator canopies

• FITA results posted quickly

• Champion “plaques” and “big” OR medals and nice Team round awards.

• Not a single “official protest” which means the event went smoothly.  WOW

• Plenty of good food at the banquet.

Disappointments:

• A severe thunderstorm toppled  target stands and many canopies the evening before the official practice after everything was ready to go.  Volunteers scrambled to reset the field so as to only delay the start of practice by one hour.  The weather just can’t be controlled.

• The team round was canceled due to forecasted stormy weather and as a result the team round trophies were not presented.  (Note that 48 teams signed up to compete which maybe some sort of JOAD National record)

We learn something at each and every one of these tournaments; here are some reminders for next time: 

• Provide two clip boards and a wind flag for each target and practice bales plus extras.

• Test electricity under full load for a good length of time and have a back up generator on standby (This tournament generator would power the PA or Timing light, but not both). 

• Try the sound system so that all can hear the DOS without blasting in any one area or too low at the far ends.

• Have several sets of timing signal flags available should all else fail.

• Club leaders should take it upon them themselves to teach their JOADs how to score, fill out a scorecard mark arrows and pull arrows, all in a timely manor. This is a must for Bowman and somewhat true for many Cubs.

• Take special care in setting target assignment in relationship to distances and target face type (6 ring vs. 10 ring target face) A good way to check is to verify the first distance and target 30 meter face type at official check in.

• Provide space for spectators who don’t attend the banquet but do attend the award ceremony.

• Provide space for OR byes to practice.

• OR matches on individual targets when applicable.

• Provide archers with OR flow charts.

• Provide OR division spread sheets and target assignments at each division shooting area for spectators.

• Locate the port a potties behind all archers’ areas to minimize distance.  Some archers are reluctant to drink enough water if potties are not close enough.

Annual JOAD Committee meeting report:

July 8, 2004  -  Conyers Georgia

after the JOAD Nationals Official Practice

Unofficial minutes

Randi Smith, National JOAD Coordinator, announced that she is turning over the position to Jim Krueger of Texas.  The Regional coordinators are Cindy Bevilacqua, East; Eva Fuller, North; Ted Harden I, West.  The south will seek a replacement JOAD coordinator for Jim Krueger.   Jim outlined JOAD proposals:

• The North East reports that JOAD nationals in June would eliminate their JOADs from the competition due to mandatory school testing in June.  Current plans are for the 2005 JOAD Nationals to take place at Disney World  June 23-26 which was the only bid received. Cindy B. reported that Brad Camp had just asked her to seek a NE site to host the tournament that will allow the NE JOADs, most notably New York State School children to compete.  Cindy noted that the JOAD nationals cannot be added to the Target Nationals because the fields are booked.  It is unknown if a tournament host that can accommodate an early July date will be found.  

• The JOAD committee would like to embrace the National Archery in the Schools Program (NASP) youth archers and will work to develop a plan. Suggestions?

• Jr USAT Camp: The Jr USAT camp is the October “Gold Camp”.  Recurve Jr USAT members will be offered a reduced camp thanks to USOC funding.  Compound Jr USAT members will pay essentially the typical camp fee.  The Jr USAT members will share the camp with JOADs that have achieved “Olympian” level of achievement. Concerns about missing school were raised.  Camp link

• Fourth Jr USAT qualifying tournament.  JOAD committee is proposing that a national JOAD tournament be held in the spring of non Jr World Team Trials years.  The tournament, nick named “Golden Arrow” would invite perhaps three of the top Cadet and Junior JOADs from each region to compete.  The tournament would attract the top JOADs by funding them to some extent.  Fund raising is a key element.  The tournament would be held in the spring.  Preliminary funding need projection is $25,000 for this event.  (This author assumes it would be an open tournament)

• At last word the NAA US Jr World Team Championship donation fund had reached $12,300.00.

• Be sure to sign up for the JOAD newsletter, the “X Files”, visit

www.texasarchery.org  for to sign up for this web based resource.

• The JOAD committee would like to reinstate the annual NAA award of JOAD Coach of the Year.

During Q and A, the question was raised as to why the JOAD Nationals is being shot reversed, again, considering that no other tournaments do it “reversed” and that the long distances will be shot during the typically windier afternoon.  As a result the format doesn’t prepare Cadets and Juniors for International competition. 

Last year's JOAD Nationals in Denver was shot in reverse order.  Positive feed back from Denver lead to the suggestion that it be tried again.  Reported Denver benefits; the scores were very good, suggesting that the format is generally positive and also helps to establish world, national and personal records. 

It is also believed that young JOADs, especially Bowman and Cubs, are able to gain confidence at the short distances.  It is hoped that reverse order results in close competition after the first day which leads to the idea that all the archers are in the hunt and the second day will be exciting with more lead changes.