Dirk Dieterich comes to the presidential position with extensive leadership experience, demonstrated success as a committee board member, and a history of building capacity in the nonprofit sector.

From approximately 2005-2015, Dieterich served on the board of the Pope & Young Club as treasurer and then director. He currently serves on the advisory council for the Rawls College of Business at Texas Tech. Dieterich’s areas of focus include strategy, finance, board management and program delivery. His goal is to utilize his business experience to help grow S3DA in an organized and structured environment.

Note: Dieterich has started and/or purchased 25 companies in oil and gas exploration, natural gas services, automobile refinance, low-income housing, environmental consulting, hunting products and ranching. He currently owns four businesses.

Dieterich was born and raised in Richardson, Texas, where he resided until he went off to college. He enrolled at Texas Tech University and graduated in 1978 with a degree in finance. After graduating from Texas Tech, he was hired by Hunt Energy Corporation in Bismarck, North Dakota. Dieterich started his career there as a petroleum landman and worked there for a couple years before he was transferred to Midland, Texas, to serve as a district manager. He lived in Midland for 27 years before moving to Colorado Springs, Colorado, where he currently resides with his wife, Didi. They have been married for 35 years and have a son in Austin, Texas and a daughter in San Francisco, California.

Archery Background

Dieterich became interested in archery in college and bought a compound bow in the late 1970s. He hunted with it for two seasons and then switched to a recurve. He has hunted with recurves and longbows ever since.

Dieterich stated, “It is fair to say that I am a traditional bow addict. I cannot imagine shooting anything else. I have harvested whitetail deer, mule deer, blacktail deer, elk, moose, black bear, turkeys, hogs, javelinas and probably a few more species. I have actively shot in 3-D shoots for the past 30 years or so.”

In 2015, in Phoenix, Arizona, Dr. Jack Frost, who was also on the Pope and Young Board, encouraged Dieterich to spend some time with Jennie Richardson, who had recently started a new organization called Scholastic 3-D Archery and had a booth at the convention. Jack had been out to visit with Jennie and was very interested in how she was introducing young folks to archery. At the time, Pope and Young was searching to partner with a signature conservation initiative. Dieterich spent a couple of hours talking to Jennie and was blown away by her compassion and background in the industry. He stated that it was easy to see that S3DA was the future of archery and bowhunting.

Following the call, Dieterich and Richardson worked out a plan to connect the Pope and Young Club and S3DA to service S3DA’s immediate need for funding. Pope and Young made a financial commitment to S3DA, and S3DA agreed to include bowhunting in its curriculum. Both organizations have benefitted greatly from the partnership.

Dieterich said, “I believe that one of, if not the most important, role we have as adults is to help young people reach their potential and make the best decisions they possibly can growing up. I have a unique opportunity to do this both as a member of the S3DA board, as well as the Rawls College of Business Board. The most gratifying time I get each year, is the time I get to spend interacting with these incredible young folks. Kids love archery and there is no better organization out there to introduce them to this wonderful sport. There are other admirable youth organizations out there in the archery industry, but I believe that S3DA is positioned well and destined to be the leader going forward.

"Jennie, her amazing staff and the board, have done an incredible job of getting this organization to this point in its evolution. With several thousand kids as members, the industry support we currently have and the growth we are experiencing, the most important thing we can do is apply sound business practices to the organization and manage the growth carefully. With all of that said, we should support each other, act as a team and not as competitors and do what is best for the kids. After all, it is all about the kids and building our future leaders.”

Dieterich wants S3DA to have a presence in every state and county in the United States. Accomplishing this goal will take hard work, wise leadership and considerable funding. Dieterich stated that S3DA would have to be able to generate the necessary operating funds from events to reach a point of financial sustainability. S3DA will continue to seek both industry and non-industry funding.

About S3DA

Started in December 2012 by the Scholastic Archery Association, S3DA has grown significantly as a next-step program to follow introductory programs offered as part of 4-H or the National Archery in Schools Program. S3DA addresses the need for a program to bridge beginning target archery experience and more advanced activities such as 3-D shooting and bowhunting. The program currently operates across the United States serving thousands of young archers, grades 3 through 12.

For more information, visit www.S3DA.org or email infos3darchery@gmail.com.