LEAGUE PARTIES 2010
In January every year we have our winter leagues, which end in a couple parties. We have an adult party for our 420/300 Spot League, our 450 Vegas League and our Indoor 3D League all combined. Then we have a youth party for our Saturday Youth League and our Adult / Youth League combined. These shooters shot 49,160 arrows and had fun doing it.
At our adult party, Bob Bryan took first place in our 420 League which is in my opinion the most challenging target in archery today. Bob's high score was 300, his high "X" count was 40 and his high "Inside X" count was 21. This guy is always changing stuff. If he ever settles down and stays in one spot for a while look out, everyone.
In our 300 League Dave Simone took 1st place, Paul Shaver on left took 2nd an his bride Julie on the right took 3rd.
Ricky Smith above on left, Julie Shaver above on the right, and Matt MacDonald below on the left all received 300 pins. There were 53, 300 scores shot here this year and for these three shooters this was the year they made it over the hump. Actually for Ricky, he has been pounding 300's for years, but had never received a 300 pin. Now of course they are all looking for a 300 60X score.
Yes, I think Matt liked his pin.
In our 450 League Dave Simone took 1st place, Ricky Smith above took 2nd place and Diana Simone, Dave's daughter took 3rd place.
In our Indoor 3D League Compound Division, Grant Taylor on the left took 1st place, Paul Shaver on right took 2nd place and Dan Utter took 3rd place. We had 11 shooter in our Traditional Davison and Chris Rueby took 1st place, Al Vieira Sr. took 2nd place and Al Stephens below took 3rd place.
We had a CD shoot where the idea is to put a CD on the target and shoot your arrow at a distance of 20 yards, in the center without breaking the CD. Below is Matt MacDonald on the left and Paul Shaver on the right who both accomplished the feat.
Naturally we had to have a sudden death shoot off which ended with Marcia cutting the winning certificate in half making Paul happy because his wife Julie below had just beat him in a shoot off at a moving 5 spot target at 20 yards.
They had both shot a 4X 25 to tie for the shoot off. To save Paul some harassment the first round of the shoot off was really, kind of, sort of, almost, if you have a good imagination, really close. Julie won the whole certificate she doesn't have to share with anyone, and you can tell by the expression on her face, she was all broken up.
At our youth party, they started shooting outdoors at 3D and stationary targets. It was a beautiful day and for the kids was a real treat after shooting inside all winter.
After shooting outside they came in and shot a moving Wolf target, the video shoot or some games we had set up. Then it was time to eat and if they went away hungry it was a problem with the person that looks back from the mirror.
Now while eating desert it is time for the awards.
In our Adult / Youth League Holly and Jeff Aubertine took 1st place followed by the team of Dominic DoVidio (Papa) and Austin VanEpps taking 2nd place.
In our Saturday Youth League Brandon Ward took 1st place, Dylan McKay below on the left took 2nd place and Alexis Penna on the right took 3rd place. This years league was a real horse race. 1st thru 5th place changed places many times over the 14 weeks.
The most improved comparing the first 7 weeks to the last 7 weeks in the league was Lennon Green below with an improvement of 46.43 points per week. No one else was even close. On the left Lennon is holding the trophy he won and on the right he is holding the plaque he made for us at Creekwood. Marcia and Ron Coyle did 90% of the work on this league and the results show that their effort paid off big time for the kids.
Everyone at the party signed the back of the plaque. LIFE IS GOOD!
Below are Brittani Messmer and Dylan McKay who received their Robin Hood Pins for of course shooting a Robin Hood during their league. A Robin Hood is shooting an arrow inside another arrow. Matt Frosini on the right isn't sleeping, he just blinked when I took the picture.
After the awards there was more shooting and fun. There was that WOLF again, and of course a balloon tree. After all the balloons were gone, then they started shooting the balloon pieces left on the tree. I called a little orange piece on the right side of the tree and was just starting to pull the trigger when it disappeared. Alexis Penna shot it right out from under me. LIFE WAS REALLY GOOD!
All the shooting sports are an absolute HOOT. Shooting sports are 95% mental which is where the real challenge comes from. Participation and competition is where you test your mental control and focus. You are really competing against yourself. The result is you learn how to think for yourself, build confidence and create common sense, which isn't very common these days.
This winter Marcia and I went to a concert at the Eastman Theater for one of our shooters from years ago Tina Naumenko, who was a three time State Champion shooting fingers. Her grandfather told me the confidence she developed with archery she applied to everything. What a great compliment to us, but she did it, we didn't. When you stretch yourself to learn a discipline which sometimes goes against the way you are, but you learn valuable abilities and traits which you can apply to anything.
Archery is a personal sport where your results are only accredited to your own personal behavior. If your team (YOU) does well LIFE IS GOOD !, and if your team does bad you have to go look in the mirror. You can make archery just fun, or you can make archery an obsession, an incurable sickness. Archery is not as hard as golf because we are allowed to look at our target, but archery is harder on our egos than golf because when we miss a shot it is missed. We don't have three or four more tries to make par.
COME ON DOWN AND ENJOY THE FUN. PUT SOME CHALLENGE IN YOUR LIFE AND TEST YOUR METAL, LIKE THESE FINE FOLKS DID.