Massively long read!!! – It’s been one long weekend and several hours since we landed back in Washington. Gabi and I were in Salt Lake City, Utah where she participated in the 2017 JOAD National Indoor Championships and 48th U.S. National Indoor Championships.
Many emotions poured over me while I watched Gabi from far far away on the balcony of the Easton Salt Lake Archery Center. Watching her on Friday have an equipment failure on the first day, on the first scoring end, in the first tournament (the JOAD)! Watching her shoot the 3 makeup arrows in front of hundreds of people all by herself! Watching her shoot a 28 out of 30 on that end! A lot of watching – watching her scrape for every point and never giving up!
With JOAD Nationals in the books and waiting for the other locations to update their final tournament results it was time to put that behind and focus on the main event – the 48th U.S. National Indoor Championships on Saturday and Sunday. And again watching Gabi struggle was inspirational. She again didn’t give up and scraped for those precious points here and there. And again – equipment failure on end 7 on the second half! Not what she needed not when she had just found her shot and was settling down. I fixed up her bow; everything was 100% perfect and back to scraping for those points – 23 out of 30. She finished strong on Saturday, much lower than she had wanted.
Sunday morning arrived; daylight savings time was a factor. We were both tired and had the pleasure of listening to cheerleaders running up and down the hallways, slamming doors, yelling and laughing in our hotel until 1:30AM. Apparently there was some sort of major cheerleading competition going on over the weekend as well. We arrived at the center early to setup and were snipping at each other for ridiculous things. She was visibly fatigued with little bags under her eyes and so I walked away for a moment to collect myself and came back and asked her how she felt. The typical “good” was her response and so we left it at that.
The time came to shoot her first practice end and she walked back to me and said she was all over the place! I could tell she was concerned by the tone of her voice so I asked her if I could coach her on the second and final practice end. She agreed and we worked on her timing, I counted out loud for her while she initiated her shot. First arrow was a 10, second arrow 9, third arrow another 9. Her remaining practice arrows all in the gold. She walked back gave me a big hug and banished me to the balcony – again.
What followed was a brilliant piece of work. She took command of her emotions and focused on the task at hand. It didn’t matter what she had done two days prior or just the day before. That was done and there was no getting it back. Viewing from the balcony, instead of frantic little hands waving me down to the field of play with equipment failures, I saw her skipping back from scoring and getting ready for the next end. I could see her singing with her hands and smiling. I could see her walking back with such confidence I have never seen her have before. She was having that perfect day where nothing could go wrong! She was having fun! She shot her shot 60 times and executed flawlessly. On the second to the last end she needed a 10 to secure the championship. At this point it was virtually impossible for her not to get ten points with 6 arrows to shoot but I wanted to watch. I grabbed my binoculars to watch her shoot her final arrows and she drove home a strong 10 and it was all over. She had taken the championship and didn’t even know it.
I’m not really sure what happened this weekend. Many things happened this weekend and still I can’t get my head around it. Gabi is the 2017 JOAD National Indoor Champion and 48th U.S. National Indoor Champion. She is blessed with skilled and dedicated coaches and friends in archery. The coaches coach archery and the friends keep her honest and humble. But even more important they are all dedicated to one another in a way that encourages and nurtures confidence and success, success in archery and success in life.
A huge thank you to Next Step Archery, The Nock Point, Darrin Barry, Bobby Hickey, Bill Hickey, Coach Josh, Coach Karin, Coach Rob, Faith, Erin, Coach John the staff at NSA, NP, the entire Jr Travel Team and Excel Team, mama and Grace. Without all of you Gabi would not be able to do it!
