Reported by: Gary Yamaguchi

The 2008 JOAD National Outdoor Tournament was a successful tournament run in the nation’s heartland, and drew 199 archers from all over the country plus 3 Canadian guests.  For some of the archers, it was their very first tournament ever!  The archers were distributed across age ranges and classifications so that there were about a dozen or more per category, with only the Cub Female Compound having small numbers. 

A constant downrange wind was present throughout the FITA.  The strong winds of the morning shooting sessions turned into fierce winds each afternoon, with gusts that reportedly reached 53 mph.  Some of the shade covers brought in to cover the competitors started breaking!  All the archers struggled with this, but kept smiling and upbeat despite the tough conditions.  Scores were probably much lower than normal because of this.  On the morning of the Olympic Rounds, there was almost no wind.  Consequently, the scores shot during the FITA rounds were not good predictors of the OR scores. 

Special events included a nice barbeque after the first day of FITA competition, and free (sponsored) Team Rounds after the FITA was concluded.  Three rounds of team qualification (seeding) rounds were conducted but unfortunately the team competition had to be cancelled due to an approaching thunderstorm.

Arizona archers who finished well included:

• Anthony Don, Junior Male Recurve, 1^st Place in the FITA with a score of 1232 and also 1^st Place in the Olympic Round

• Nathan Yamaguchi, Cub Male Recurve, 1^st Place in the FITA with a score of 1209 and a 2^nd Place in the Olympic Round

• Colt Van Patter, Bowman Male Compound, 2^nd Place with a 1351 FITA score*

• Kiley Larrick, Cadet Female Recurve, 3^rd Place in the FITA with a score of 1127

• Karissa Yamaguchi, Bowman Female Recurve, 3^rd Place in the FITA with a score of 1141*

*(no Olympic Rounds for Bowmen)

In the Olympic Rounds, Mackenzie Kieborz advanced to the quarter-finals of the Junior Female Compound category but lost to the #1 seed and eventual winner.  Kiley Larrick also advanced to the quarter-finals of the Cadet Female Recurve division and lost to the silver medalist.  Ashley Carmichael shot a nice score in the 1/8 round but unfortunately lost to the bronze medalist.

The tournament was run with a very friendly and helpful staff, and the competition remained fun and friendly for the Cub and Bowman divisions that we saw.

---

 

JOAD Outdoor Nationals Summer 2008

By Nathan Yamaguchi

Oklahoma City Nationals was one of the most fun tournaments I have been to!  But going to the tournament was only half of the fun, the other half was training for it.  Outdoor Nationals is a very long tournament and you need to be in strong from your first arrow to your last arrow.  To get in tip-top shape my sister and I enrolled in Coach Mark Penaz’s competition training seminars, and shot hundreds of arrows every week in our back yard, at the indoor archery range, and at Papago Park.  Coach Penaz helped us with learning the B.E.S.T. method and getting our form to be as close to perfect as we could.  On Saturdays, we were at Papago shooting practice Olympic Rounds (ORs) with our other Coach, Mr. Ed Votruba.  Before long, it was time to go to the real deal, Oklahoma City dun dun da!

Once we arrived at the fairgrounds, where the tournament was being held, we shot a few rounds to get our sights set for the Oklahoma conditions and went back to our hotel.  After a good night’s sleep we got up early and got ready to shoot with a good breakfast of bacon, eggs, and potatoes. 

Since this was my first JOAD National Outdoor tournament I was surprised to see how many kids were shooting there.  My bale was all the way on the other side of the range from my sister’s.  I set up my scope and bow.  At first the only kid I knew that was near me was Colt Van Patter from Straight-N-Arrow of west Phoenix (Bowman Compound).  But by the time our official practice rounds were over, I had met everyone on my bale and many others.  I was shooting with Devan Wiss from Missouri, Brian Wise from Kansas, and Thomas Truitt from California.  It soon became obvious that our bale was the one to beat.  Devan, Thomas, and I were leading along with Ben Nabozny one bale over.  Unfortunately, Brian’s limbs had twisted so he did not shoot as well as I knew he could.  And the wind...  It was blowing downrange with really strong gusts.  Throughout the whole FITA tournament, which is held over four different distances and two days, Devan, Ben, Thomas, and I were battling to stay ahead of one another.  At the end of the FITA, I had won by the skin of my teeth. 

The last day was reserved for the Olympic Rounds, which is a head-to-head single elimination format.  You have to shoot well or you’re out.  The morning of the OR was very nice.  Surprisingly there was barely any wind.  Everyone seemed confused looking for targets, bale assignments, and getting some practice in on the side targets.  The really fun part of the OR is that the top four seeded shooters got a bye, so while everyone else was shooting we could practice without worry.  Well, the whole day was filled with nerves.  Everyone from the judges to the spectators were curious to see who had won each head-to-head match.  Even other archers who decided not to shoot came to watch their fellow archers.  Words of encouragement were given from one archer to another. 

At the end of the OR rounds there were a bunch of ties, except not in my division where Devan Wiss had shot the lights out.  In the Junior Male Recurve division there was a one arrow shoot-off between Tony Don from Tucson and Aaron Henslin. They both shot very good. 

The awards were especially exciting because National Head Coach Kisik Lee was handing out the awards.  I was very excited because this was my first year going to a Outdoor National and I had gotten one.  Oklahoma was everything I imagined, except I missed hearing Mr. Pian’s music while we were scoring our arrows.

I would like to thank the judges, fellow archers, and everyone who sponsored this tournament.

---