•VERY LONG• Each one of these USA Archery USAT Series qualifying events are special and each one has its own unique story of success, disappointment, victory and defeat. The 2019 Doinker SoCal Showdown at the former Olympic Training Center (OTC) located in Chula Vista, California is particularly special because it marked a full tournament season since we were down in 2018. My oh my…what a difference a year makes!
This year’s SoCal was even more exciting because bookending the tournament weekend was the World Archery Youth Championships Team Trials. The format for the trials was interesting – a 720 qualification round (72 arrows) cut to the top 8 archers and round robbins where all 8 athletes shoot one full elimination round against the other 7 archers. On qualification day we showed up an hour early at 7AM and followed our typical pre-tournament day routine. Gabi found her target assignment, set up her seat and scope, while I set up her bows, double checked her setups and measurements. She and her teammate Lillian made their way to the short bale warmup area and they took a nice long session. At about 15 minutes to start announcements began and both girls made it back to their seats. It was go time!
At breakfast, prior to World Trials qualifications, Gabi and I reconfirmed each of our tournament strategies. As usual I would warm her up during official practice, then walk away and leave her to run her own personal tournament strategy and mental program. In case of an urgent emergency she would call me on my mobile, if she wanted to ask advice or simply let me know what’s going on she would text. We have used this system many times and it has worked well. So…what happened during the World qualifier Friday morning? My answer to that is – I have no idea! What I can tell you is The Da Vinci Code streaming on Netflix, even after 13 years, is still an entertaining movie. Over the long 3 hours of shooting my mental program was to stay away from Gabi, refrain from checking live scoring on betweenends.com and to just relax…stay in the moment. At the end of the day Gabi put up a tournament PR, made the top 8 cut and was ranked 4th to receive 5 valuable bonus points for World Trial round robbins.
As pleased as Gabi was about her performance on Friday, the weekend had just started. Saturday and Sunday were the two parts of the Doinker SoCal Showdown. This year the Recurve Cadet Women were assigned to the PM line so our morning was lazy and restful. No alarms, tired eyes or frantic rushing around to get to the field. Time arrived for us to leave and we headed out the door to In-N-Out Burger for lunch. When official practice was about to start Gabi took her seat and started to get into her tournament strategy. The buzzer sounded and she walked forward to the shooting line as she had done thousands of times before. As her coach (and I use the word coach lightly) I stood behind the line spotted her arrows and provided feedback on what I was seeing. Typical things like: watch your timing, check your flags, good shot, pressure forward, stay connected, mental reset, be aggressive, strong bow arm, good choice, hold, send it, good to go, etc. Basically verbal cues that she can take or leave based on how she was feeling or if it was relevant at that moment. The difficulty is to not be emotional or to give any facial tells that may affect the athlete. After warm ups, I wished Gabi good luck, told her to have fun, be aggressive and I walked away. Just like the day prior I did not check live scoring and found a seat in the shade, watched some anime, talked to other smart parents that did not want to shoot laser beam eyeballs at their archers or burn holes into the targets with binoculars. Before long I heard clapping, customary after the last end, and I packed up my area and found my way to target 13B. Gabi had a huge smile on her face and was carrying the momentum from Friday into the weekend. For all her hard work she was ranked 3rd and put in a good position for Sunday’s Olympic Rounds (OR’s are single eliminations).
On Sunday, with 88 archer in the division, there were no byes and everyone in the top 64 started shooting the OR’s in 1/32nd round. In the 1/32nd and 1/16th Gabi made quick work of her opponents, retiring each – 3 sets and out. Each set is worth 2 points. In a set, 3 arrows are shot worth 10 thru 1 points (0 for a miss) with a max score of 30. If you win the set you are awarded 2 points, ties split the points and the first archer to 6 set points wins. In the 1/8th Gabi shot strong and went the full distance to 5 sets to take it 7 to 3, making it to the Quarter Finals. Quarters was a difficult round, she had to shoot against her good friend Judith. As true competitors both girls faced off and gave it their all. Gabi won the first set but Judith came back strong to put Gabi down 2 set points at 4 to 2 in favor of Judith. Facing a deficit Gabi dug in, remained calm and was able to win sets 4 and 5 to win the round 6 to 4 advancing her to the Semifinals. In the Semis Gabi had a little rough patch and shots were not coming easy. She went down in 4 sets and was positioned to shoot for the Bronze in Finals. Like a seasoned vetran Gabi shot her process and started off quickly. She went up 4 set points straight away, tied the 3rd set and closed it out with a strong 29 to win the final set – 7 to 1. Discreetly Gabi and I forearm bumped, I whispered “congratulations” in her ear, she whispered back “thank you” and with that SoCal came to a close. Gabi made her second appearance on the podium this USAT season, secured a bronze medal and most importantly earned valuable National Ranking System (NRS) points.
With 3 long days of competition in the books the big show was held bright and early Monday morning, the World Archery Youth Championships Team Trials round robbins. With everything setup Gabi and a couple of her friends, also shooting round robbins, leisurely chatted and went about their business. I quietly shuffled around and walked into the Easton Archery Center of Excellence and made my down the hallway to a remote bathroom. While walking I received a notification on Facebook about a memory. What popped up took me by complete surprise, it was my post written one year ago about Gabi’s first SoCal. Foolishly I read the old post. Instantly my heart started to race, I felt all the suppressed emotions come up and I lost it. Gabi was about to shoot the biggest event of her life, to date, and somehow I was the one breaking down! Bang, Bang, Bang on the door of the Men’s Room – “Archers to the field. Shooting is about to begin.” Hastily I collected myself and made it back to the field. Eight o’clock rolled around the buzzer called the archers to the line and official practice began. Gabi’s first of seven rounds was against teen phenom Casey (a 15 year old shooting on the US Senior national team) who this summer has been representing Team USA on the World Cup circuit! Gabi did not go down without a fight, taking Casery all the way to 5 sets and finally relinquishing the round 7 to 3. The day pretty much proceeded just like the others, Gabi shot her process, lost her process, found her process and soldiered on. Gabi soaked it all in, staying in the moment and enjoyed the very unique and special opportunity to be included in a group of the nation’s most elite young archers. Stakes were high, 3 spots available for the world team, but for some strange reason Gabi was oddly at ease with what was going on around her. At the conclusion of round robbins Gabi ranked 4th and was named the official alternate to Team USA’s Youth Championship World Team. You would think someone in this position might be disappointed but she was so ecstatic and proud of herself, unlike I have ever seen from her before. On our way back to the car she said “Can you believe it papa? I did it!” I replied “You did do it big girl, I‘m so proud of you.”
So much happened over the 4 days of shooting. Gabi shot in her first World Team Trial, was certified as alternate for World Youth Championships Team, finished 3rd in the SoCal Shootout, achieved a tournament PR and strengthened her overall national ranking for Cadet National Team. Many accomplishments, surely plenty for an athlete and a father to be proud of – right? Yet, I look back and what I am proud of most is how Gabi supported her friends. How she cheered on Judith during their head-to-head elimination round. How she was honest and empathetic to those she retired. How she remained humble in success. How when told by a fellow archer, now that Gabi retired her, Gabi must take the hopes of that archer and continue on and be strong for the both of them…she did. Over the weekend I was mostly emotionally detached from the events, choosing to stay away and be in my own space and giving Gabi her space to do her thing. I did not realize how detached I was until that moment in the Men’s Room where I slipped up and allowed myself to be overwhelmed by all that was swirling around.
I cannot testify to what really happened at SoCal and Trials because I was not really there for most of it. The only times I watched was when I stood behind Gabi spotting for SoCal eliminations and round robbins. I got to watch up close some brilliant work by a bright and talented young athlete. This past weekend Gabi came full circle at SoCal. She came back better prepared, stronger, more experienced and ready for action. She showed the maturity of a person who wanted to succeed and succeeded. There were no heroics or crazy comeback stories this time around, just deliberate action and straightforward consistency. Through the grace of God and the help of many many people Gabi was, one way or another, poised to succeed.
Many thank yous to those that support, encourage and cheer on Gabi. Karin and Rob Cook, Faith, Coach Bob and Bill Hickey, Coach Timm, Darrin Barry, Lee Jin, Next Step Archery, The Nock Point, OCD Strings
