2005 JOAD Nationals

2005 JOAD Nationals

24th Annual Junior National Championship

Orlando, Florida

June 23 - 26, 2005

Pre-Tournament NAA Press Release

Florida Website

Disney World Sports Complex Event Page

Post Tournament NAA Press Release

JOAD Nationals Championship Results

Jr US Open Results

Photos

Summary Report

Professional photos you can purchase from Amazing Pictures Then click on "Sports Photos"

Twelve Arizona JOADs competed in the 24th annual National JOAD Championships held at the Disneyworld Sports Complex in Orlando Florida.

This tournament determined the 2005 National Champion and is a required tournament to be on the Junior USAT team. Junior, Cadet, Cub and Bowman divisions were contested.

The Junior US Open (which is open to foreign guests) was shot on Sunday.

Our JOADs should be proud of their performances and represented Arizona well.

From the Tucson area:

Corinna Ramirez, Female Bowman Recurve, Marana, 3rd Place
Annette Gorelik, Female Cadet Recurve, Tucson, 6th place
Maggie Huff, Female Junior Recurve, Tucson, 11th place
Mack Huff, Male Cub Compound, Tucson, 8th place, 4th place in Jr US Open
Michael Poindexter, Male Cub Recurve, Tucson, 8th place
Maku Wood, Female Cadet Recurve, Tucson, 12th place
Ryan Davis, Male Cadet Recurve, Tucson, 10th place

From the Phoenix area:

Mollie Moore, Female Junior Recurve, Phoenix, 6th place
Aprilyn Witt, Female Junior Compound, Waddell, 6th place
Brandon Hunt, Male Junior Compound, Glendale, 7th place
Brady Ellison, Male Junior Compound, Glendale, 1st Place and Jr US Open Gold Medal
Lindsay Pian, Female Junior Recurve, Scottsdale, 1st Place and Jr US Open Gold Medal

A Summary Report from the Chairman of Judges, Bob Pian

The tournament was held at the Disney Wide World of Sports Complex.

The Complex is an extensive collection of sports fields including baseball, softball, track, football, soccer. There is also an indoor gymnasium and MLB spring training stadium.

224 JOADs took part, which is about 75 fewer competitors than the average attendance for the last couple of years. Many reasons have been given as to the cause:

Archers entry fee ($100)

Spectator fee (Length of event pass was $16/Adult and $12/Child)

Hot humid weather (90 and 90)

gas prices (although cheap by Arizona standards)

airline and lodging costs

Let’s hope it’s not due to a decline in youth FITA archery.

Tournament set up:

83 bales were set up for three archer 2.5 meter shooting lanes.
There were practice bales on each end of the field.
The single three archer lanes were part of the planning in order to speed up the tournament in hopes of avoiding the typical afternoon showers.
Disney provided timing lights and digital timer, PA system, speakers directly behind the DOS, DOS stand, archer’s canopy with chairs, spectator bleachers with canopies, presentation stage, podium and platform, decorative flags, trash bag on stands, iced water in cooler with cups.
Disney staff included a liaison and assistant liaison, physical therapist, PA technician as well as community volunteers on the scoring days.
The spectator bleachers with cover canopies helped to congregate the archer’s families together.

Practice day, Thursday:

The JOADs and their family arrived at the Sports complex early on practice day.
Once the Disney staff arrived, the JOADs and family’s negotiated the tournament check in table, the Sports complex credential/waiver table, the spectator ticket booth and then the turnstiles before making the walk thru the plaza, down some steps or ramps, past the play fields and over to the tournament field set up on a softball baseball complex.
At times a shuttle helped move equipment and people.
Actual practice began slowly as Disney began processing and admitting the long line of archers and their families15 minutes before the start of official practice.
Practice began 30 minutes behind schedule with many archers arriving after practice had begun.
Morning practice ran smoothly with the area in front of the canopies turning muddy from the heavy foot traffic over rain saturated turf.
Parents and coaches were allowed to be in the archer’s area to help their JOADs during practice.
Thunderstorms in the area around 1:30 PM, by 2:00 PM, Disney staff had the field cleared for 2 ½ hours due to lightning.
Shooting resumed around 3:45 PM.
The east ½ of the field was closed at 5:45PM, the west ½ closed as scheduled at 6:00 PM.
Tournament Director Fred Demuth and Florida archery community volunteers reset the field for the next day.
Then it was time to dry out.

Two long distance FITA day, Friday:

Archers, parents, and staff were all nervous as the Championship was about to begin.
A Disney performer sang an upbeat version of the national anthem.
The tournament scoring began at 9:00 AM and then ran relatively smoothly though somewhat behind the optimistic schedule.
Only competitors, judges, tournament field staff, press and target assistant volunteers were allowed beyond the back of the archer's canopies.
It was windy day in addition to being warm and humid.
The portable toilets on the ladies side of the field were located down range and were unusable during shooting.
As a result DOS Neil Foster provided a 15 minute break at the mid point of each distance.
The tournament had a minimum of bounce outs, some missed arrows and many arrows into the wood target frames.
There were a light sprinkles that grew a little heavier during the 2nd distance.
The archers were directed to bring their score cards back to the canopies between ends to protect them.
Eventually Disney distributed gallon size zip lock bags to slide the scorecard clipboards into.
A leader board never materialized on day one.
No lunch break besides three 15 minute breaks.
The FITA portion finished around 1:00 PM.

Team rounds, Friday afternoon:

On Thursday and Friday morning the 10 mixed gender teams signed up for the team competition.
Tournament Director, Fred did his best to let everyone play including some last minute registrants
Judges ran several practices as the ranking and flow charts were organized.
The team rounds began ahead of schedule at 3:00 PM
They were over around 5:00 PM and then it was time to take a much needed break.
We were all amazed that the heavy rain had stayed away for the first scoring day because the skies were dark most of the day.

Two short distance FITA day, Saturday:

It was great weather for shooting and several JOAD National tournament records were broken.
It was still very warm and very humid.
A leader board materialized thanks to the efforts of many.
The tournament had first published that all competitors would be shooting individual 80 cm 6 ring targets at the last distance.
The Tournament Committee revised the criteria and Junior, Cadets and Cub shot the individual 80 cm 6 ring targets and the Bowman division shot 80 cm 10 ring targets.
The Bowman parents indicated that the Bowmans as a whole sighed in relief at the announcement.
The FITA was over around 2:00 PM.
The tournament took the time to check the top scores and presented the very nice FITA award plaques on the field at 4:00 PM.
The Tournament Staff returned to the Milk House (Disney's Gymnasium) office and began score input, OR layout and OR target assignments. Staff worked to about midnight.

Junior US Open, Olympic Round, Sunday:

Juniors, Cadets and Cubs competed in 12 categories.
The weather turned sunny, hot and humid on elimination day.
Diligent OR planning made for a minimum of target moving and speedy match play.
The bronze medal then gold medal matches to place 11 matches at a time thanks to the availability of 11 judges.
The results were quickly compiled and Jr US Open award plaques presented around 2:30 PM.
By that time most had departed and it was time for the Florida archer volunteers to break down the field and pack up.

Archery Staff:

Tournament Director: Fred Demuth oversaw and directed the whole process with the Disney sports staff.
His archery staff also included a hand full for Florida State Archery Association volunteers.
Staff had experience with the US World Team Trials in May.
DOS: Neil Foster took time to explain tournament process details and history for the novice archers
Chairman of Judges: Bob Pian
Judges: Jake Veit, Ken Walther, Reina Lukas, Debbie Hermerding, Bob Siteman, Jane Johnson, Carylon Knosp, Sara Stoltman
Additional Judges for ORs: Karl Nelson and MJ Rogers.
Jury of Appeals: Janice Price, Alan Huff, Karl Nelson
Archery volunteers: Florida State Archery Association members

Scale:

The JOAD Nationals was a much larger tournament with many more categories, archers and spectators than the US World Team Trials conducted on the same field in May.
The 16 JOAD category FITA and 12 category OR, and greater number of spectators, make the JOAD Nationals perhaps the most complex tournament logistics of any FITA tournament in the USA.
Furthermore the tournament is managed by a whole new staff every year on a four year regional rotation cycle.
Fred was happy to have the NAA assigned DOS and Judging staff come in and help.

Weather:

Typical weather for late June in Orlando is hot and humid with afternoon thunderstorms.
It rained heavily most of all three days before the tournament; as a result it took three days just to strip the field. Some parts of the field and spectator area remained muddy.
The tournament was lucky to avoid real rain on each of the three scoring days.
Some commented that it was approaching the conditions of last years JOAD Championship in Georgia.

Dress Code:

A few shorts were found to be the wrong color. The archer was asked if they had other compliant clothing that they could wear or borrow. All were able to comply by days end.
There was at least one “bare midriff” condition. Safety pins were provided and the issue was resolved.
A competitor wore a shirt with large embroidered oversized archery advertising on the front and back of their shirt. The archer was directed to wear a compliant shirt at the earliest opportunity.
The lesson here is to be sure you are wearing NAA compliant dress to avoid being asked to change, which could affect one mentally.

Safe draws:

It is unsafe to draw a bow with the arrow pointed up, above the target height.
Judges warned unsafe competitors.
The lesson here is to always draw the bow safely so that you do not change your routine at a tournament.

Lessons:

At registration, provide an Archers bag with a program, coupons or something to remember the tournament goodies giving the sense of a "National" tournament.
Event Tee Shirts: Quantities were drastically underestimated and were mysteriously sold at a remote location. By the time anyone knew anything, they were already sold out. Some lucky few were successful.
Music needs to be planned for appropriate topics and language for the young audience.
There should be enough music to fill the four days of tournament without the sense of repetition.
The JOAD Nationals is the most complicated distance vs. category OR organization as 12 categories must be orchestrated and planned for.
This effort need to be undertaken weeks in advance of tournament day with the help of experienced tournament hosts.
Food and snack concessions should be available all day and clearly communicated as to where food can be found. If no food will be available, clearly communicate in advance so families can plan accordingly.
If food is provided specifically for the archery event, healthy foods and snacks should be offered.
Well fed archers, parents and judges and staff tend to be happier.
Create credentials for media, photographers and target assistants.
Target Assistants help the Bowman and Cub with scoring, help to pull arrows, help remove arrows, help find arrows, help move targets and help with target faces.
Team rounds and team round award can take place while work is going on behind the scene.
Perhaps the team rounds could have taken place as the FITA results were being compiled.
Perhaps the Team round awards could have been distributed while the FITA results were being compiled.
The Team round again was poorly attended. What if the Team round participation was required for Jr USAT consideration?
The 2005 National Target Championship is in Colorado Springs. The deadline was extended and Colorado Springs is a long day drive from Arizona.
The 2006 JOAD National Championship is expected to be in Cincinnati, Ohio area at the end of June.
2006 is a US Junior World Team Trials year, dates and location to be announced.
Some have mentioned that the Jr World Championship will be in Mexico next year and in India in the near future.

And finally…

The Tournament Director
Florida archery community volunteers
DOS
Line Judges and
JOAD parent volunteers

exhibited initiative, adaptability, resourcefulness and imagination to insure that the competitors, spectators and media were well accommodated. Especially Fred, who remained gracious thru it all.

Their service, dedication and sacrifice deserve a sincere Thank You.

Submitted by Bob Pian, Arizona Junior and Collegiate Archery