Archery legacy in Ogden

 
RAJIGAH heard about last year Youth World Championships thanks to the Go Foundation that was helping recruit volunteers. She ended up as a volunteer coordinator and got excited about a sport that she had only played a few times in the forest during her childhood.   After the championships, she went to Weber State University Multicultural Advisory Board and the Physical Ed department with a strong idea: why not teach an archery class? She followed through and took up the sport both as an archer and an instructor. She earned her Basic and Intermediate Certification (Level I and II) from USA Archery and the National Archery Development Association. She went to big event such as the Las Vegas Festival, the Arizona Cup and the New Jersey Gold Cup to get more experience in the management of archery. She received some precious advices from real archery name such as Ed ELIASSON who had a long-term involvement in the archery Olympic program in the USA. She shot her first tournament in May under the coaching of Janet BARRS at the Utah Summer Games. She shot a 60m with a barebow! With her intermediate certification, she already trained some future coaches, 13 of them in July. She plans to get herself the Level III certification at Bob ROMERO’s centre in Florida. Finally she hopes to go soon to Chula Vista and observe one of the best trainers of archery all-time, Coach LEE Kissik.   All RAJIGAH’s effort will pay off in the upcoming fall semester with the opening of one (or two!) archery class for credit at Weber State University as well as an archery club. Lisa said: “We tried to take advantage of the World Cup event in Ogden and make a little buzz with the opening of this archery class. The Archery World Cup, as a well as an international dance festival taking place in Salt Lake City, led to the first International Festival in downtown Ogden, just before the competitions. There was a great turnout and we were there with a little booth to recruit students for the archery club. I believe I recruited my first member, a bright young guy who actually comes from Turkey and was doing archery there. His family has just settled in Ogden. We continued our effort with the Kids Fan Zone during the finals of the World Cup stage and with a kid’s camp on Weber Campus on 13-14 August.”   “In the coming months, we will also receive help from the Mount Ogden Archery Association. They will lend us their field for free for one year to get us going. Our ultimate goal is to add a Junior Olympic Archery Development (JOAD) Club for the 8-20 years old. With this, the club and lessons at the University as well as the Mount Ogden Archery Association, we would offer archery to anyone who wants to take up this wonderful sport!”   Any person interested can contact Lisa at wsuarchery@yahoo.com!   World Archery Communication