The Next Arrow

“Congratulations!” beamed Coach and Phys Ed teacher Mr. Justin Simon. “You are officially members of the 2020 Eagle Archery Team!” It was Thursday, February 6th, and this was the first time that Mr. Simon assembled the 2020 Eagle Archery Team to review expectations.

This year’s team consists of the following students: Tyler Duncan, Julian Vogen, Kaisha Walker, Alberto Rodriguez/Fernandez, Devin Purdy, Tim Porada, Ryland Dembrosky, Joe Greco, Brandon Vogel, Mike Prestonpine, Jake Runyon, Melody Babinec, Nate Buchanan, Kadence Hare, Nathan Livolsi, and Haileigh Graham.

Being an Eagle Archer is a privilege not a right. “Okay guys — from now on, you are going to continue to stay out of trouble,” was Simon’s first mandate. “Being on this team requires great responsibility — as a member of the team and as a representative from LCCTC,” and as this message was accepted, you could see a sense of pride cause each member to sit up just a little bit more.

There are additional responsibilities when participating on a team like this — one of the biggest is making time for practice. Of course, Mr. Simon is ready to oversee practices so that students can develop the muscle memory necessary to hit their mark. This means that any free time should be spent wisely — keeping up with all work in shop or academics OR participating in practice.

Another responsibility each member should adopt is a team mentality. Success in competition can occur, but only if every member shoots well. “Our goal is to move on to state competition,” states Simon, “but we can only do this with our combined team scores.” With this in mind, it is critical that positive attitudes prevail. Communication must be constructive.

According to United States Olympic team member Mackenzie Brown, being a team member is a unique experience. Team members can often provide much needed advice; they’ve “got your back” for the good of the team. “[A team member is] someone to help you out when you have bad shots,” Brown states, “and someone who can push you further when you have good scores, too,” That teammate can remind the shooter to “forget the last arrow; only the next one counts.”

Ultimately, members must lift each other up; the Golden Eagle Archery Team will have the opportunity to do this on February 13th when several different schools will travel to LCCTC to compete in the regional qualifiers. This event will determine which teams will move on to the state level.

It was Aristotle who said, “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then is not an act, but a habit.” As the LCCTC Eagle Archery Team prepares to tackle this first challenge, we wish them much luck!