Pope and Young Convention Recognizes 13 New World Records
Pope and Young successfully completed its 33rd Biennial Convention in Reno, Nevada, and recognized 13 new world record animals during the event’s banquet. The banquet, which happens every 2 years, finished 4 days of meetings, seminars and activities that included the distribution of more than 180 awards, and featured 174 of the largest animals ever harvested with archery equipment.
“The 33rd Biennial Pope and Young Convention showcases America’s commitment to bowhunting and bowhunting conservation,” said Dylan Ray, Pope and Young marketing director. “It is a gathering of the finest bowhunting conservationists in the world, and an opportunity to recognize their accomplishments both in terms of hunting, and conservation. It’s so great to gather with like-minded, conservation minded, bowhunters. The trophy display was one that was talk of the entire convention center, and for good reason. I am already looking forward to 2025 and excited to see what we can come up with for Phoenix.”
The full convention stat book that provides a full convention breakdown and complete list of all awards given, can be seen by clicking here.
Buck Knives Adds Rick Alsen on National Accounts
Buck Knives recently announced that the company has added knife-industry veteran Rick Alsen as its national accounts manager. Alsen brings more than 25 years of success in managing and leading brands in several outdoors categories. He will apply that lengthy expertise in his role developing, implementing and managing sales strategy with several of Buck’s key national accounts.
Prior to joining Buck Knives, Alsen held several key roles with outdoor recreation companies, including vice president of sales and marketing for X-Vision, national sales manager for Beavertail Products, and sales manager for Gardner Sales Associates where he represented brands including Stowmaster nets, Lamiglas fishing rods and others.
“We are very blessed and honored to have someone of Rick’s background join the Buck Knives’ family,” said Buck Knives Vice President of Sales Mark Reasoner. “National accounts are a critical element to our long-term growth plan, and his expertise in this channel puts Buck Knives in a great position to achieve success.”
"I truly love working in the outdoor industry and, above all, I value the priceless relationships I've cultivated over the years,” Alsen said. “I am honored to join the Buck Knives family and be a part of the company’s rich tradition and legacy."
NASP — Changing Lives One Arrow at a Time
Since the inception of the National Archery in the Schools Program, the focus has been on making a positive impact on the lives of students. After 20 years, and with more than 20 million students safely introduced to in-school archery, there are many extraordinary stories about lives that the program and its instructors positively impacted. NASP is excited to share a new feature to the NASP website, entitled “Why NASP.” NASP archers are known for their determination, strength and resilience, and these stories are just a sample of that evidence.
Archery is an inclusive sport that allows people of all abilities to participate. It doesn’t discriminate based on athletic skill, size, gender or economic background. Students are learning focus, self-control, discipline, patience and the life lessons required to be successful in the classroom and in life.
Confidence is one of the qualities that grows in students participating in archery. A NASP coach from Kentucky shared that, “During her 8th grade year, Sophie hit her stride and the opportunities provided by NASP gave her an opportunity to find her voice . . . NASP has given Sophie an opportunity to find several inner strengths in addition to participating in competition.”
The normal athletic mobility and skill required for many other sports isn’t found in archery. This allows NASP to provide an athletic program open to almost all students. Adaptive equipment is one way that archery has been made accessible for even more physically challenged archers. One NASP school principal wrote about his student, Kaiya, “Unfortunately, there are opportunities that are simply unavailable to her, such as fully participating on a basketball or volleyball team. When Kaiya entered grade four, I was excited at the possibility of her becoming a member of the archery team.
Kaiya said, “I found a way to participate in archery using only one arm to pull the string and release the arrow . . . It has not been the easiest thing to do, but that never made me stop.”
Academic success and the support of educators is another priority for NASP, and when students find success on the range, it often translates into success in the classroom as well.
One parent shared that her daughter Emily, “Began to experience greater success in the classroom, receiving numerous awards for academic success as well as being recognized for her character . . . and has continued to show leadership and determination.”
NASP just celebrated its largest enrollment ever for Academic Archer, with 34,577 student archers nominated by their local coach. More information about this academic recognition program can be found by clicking here.
Note: The NASP is looking for more success stories. Parents and coaches are invited to share the success of their archers by sending their stories to stephanie@naspschools.org
Youth Archers Break Attendance Records During 2023 Arizona Cup
With almost 800 archers competing across 3 days, a record-breaking Arizona Cup came to a thrilling close recently as the youth divisions did battle at the Ben Avery Archery Range.
Local archer Joseph Huey overcame early nerves to defeat Jacob Kim in the recurve U21 men’s. The recurve women’s gold medal was claimed by Michelle Ahn, who beat twin sisters Samantha and Grace Lum in the semifinals and final, respectively.
The compound U21 men’s crown went to Parker Braddock. A pivotal third end turned a two point deficit into a one point advantage, and from there he held on against a strong top seed Isaac Sullivan.
Ximena Estrada saw off leading seed Sydney Sullenberger in the compound U21 women’s semifinals before seeing off Claire Garrison 136-135 in their gold medal match.
Huey had vocal support from family and friends, and insisted that helped him build toward the win. He said, “Over there (on the finals field) I was very nervous. I wasn’t really ready for that stage, but having so many people behind me cheering me on really helped overcome those nerves early on.”
Despite appearing so strong in her 6-0 win over Grace Lum in the women’s recurve, Michelle Ahn also admitted to having to adjust to the setting and the occasion.
“It was definitely nerve-wracking being up there,” she said. “But my shots were pretty strong; I shot pretty good.”
The biggest smile of the day certainly seemed to belong to Parker Braddock. He finished – in his words – a disappointing sixth earlier in the week at the World Archery Youth Championship Team Trials, but walked off with gold in the compound U21 men’s event.
“I had a rough indoor season, and didn’t win as many as I’d like,” he said. “I came into this tournament just wanting to shoot as many good shots as I could, and let the results happen. I took every shot one by one, and when you get up into the shoot-down, and there’s the top guys, anyone can win at any time, so my arrows fell in the right spot and I ended up getting the win.”
Elsewhere in the U21 category, there were wins in the barebow division for top seeds John Sarazin in the men’s and Anastacia Godman in the women’s.
There were also golds given out in the U18 division. In the recurve, there was a decisive third end in the men’s match as Matthew Parmenter beat Patrick Nielsen in a closely-fought contest.
Audrey Khan Arevalo had quite the day in the recurve U18 women. She qualified as the 51st seed and made it all the way to the gold medal match before losing to Lily Lin, the ninth seed. Milla Shanklin, the 44th seed, contested the bronze medal match, which was won by second seed Riley Tateyama.
It was a battle of the top seeds in the compound U18 men, with Dewey Hathaway (1) posting a maximum in the third end, which proved decisive in his win over Grady Kane (2).
Leann Drake (2) was victorious over Madison Ritter (8) in the compound U18 women, while in the U18 barebow – as with the U21s – victory went to the top seeds in each category, with Anthony Malik and Maya Young grabbing gold.
Results from the AAE Arizona Cup can be found on Between Ends. There is also a photo gallery from each day of competition.
