It was an ordinary day. Walked out the drive and picked up the morning paper. Checked the front page as I returned to my home and saw the large photograph of a 17 years old girl named Casey Kaufhold staring at me while holding a huge compound bow. Story told of Casey beginning her summer with a bang when she became a member of the 2021 United States Tokyo Olympics Team as an archer. She happens to be one of only two archers who will be shooting her Easton X10 arrows into the center spot on the target when she represents the entire country at the Olympics. How neat is that! Did I say that she is 17 and only one of two archers? Now, that is really neat! The story in the newspaper told that she set a new world record while trying for the sole women's spot on the team. Not only did she beat her female competitors, she beat all the male competitors as well. And, she's from LANCASTER! LANCASTER, PENNSYLVANIA! Wow! The story said that no other archer younger than 21 has ever scored higher than 682 out of a total of 720 points, as she did in her Olympics qualifier. Casey has been shooting arrows at targets for most of her life it seems. She beat her dad for the first time when she was 12. Her mom and dad, Carole and Robert have been archers for many years and own a world-class archery facility on the Old Philadelphia Pike in Lancaster. Years ago my wife and I had a vegetable garden at the same location where the Lancaster Archery Supply is now located. My Uncle Bob was part owner of BRW Fuel Company that had a business on that site and had plenty of vacant ground which they gave to relatives to farm if they wanted to do so. They eventually closed the business and the Lancaster Archery Supply took over the location and founded their company in 1988. Casey's dad competes on the world team for field archery and her mom is an avid bowhunter, thus Casey was born into a bow and arrow family and got support all along the way. Shortly after she beat her dad at the age of 12, she earned four gold medals at the Easton Junior Olympic Archery Development Nationals in Decatur, Alabama. During the past few years she has been in competitions all around the world. Then in 2016 she met Dick Tone who is a legendary archery coach who has been responsible for taking close to a dozen archers to the Olympic Games over the past few decades. One such archer was 1990 Gold Medalist Jay Barrs. Casey had taken the advice quite a few times from Coach Tone and has become a world class archer. She began her training for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, but was delayed by COVID-19. That year's difference meant not being able to take her AP classes at nearby Conestoga Valley High School where she is a student. She tried to stay physically fit even thought most everything was shut down for a year. She says that her scores she is shooting now as compared to two years ago are like night and day. She credits the extra year of preparation for her record-shattering qualifier scores. During training for the Olympics she shot with the Lancaster Archery Junior Olympic Archery Development Club.
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| Casey Kaufhold - bowhunting.com |
Casey will be going to Tokyo with 32-year-old Brady Ellison, who won the bronze medal in the 2016 games and is currently ranked No. 1 in the world in recurve archery. Ellison has been an inspiration to Kaufhold since they met when she was 8 years old. The two competed together in the 2019 Pan-Am games in Peru where they earned two gold medals in the mixed team recurve finals. Even though she is only 17 years old, she knows that she will have to be mentally and physically prepared for Tokyo. She knows she has to focus on every single arrow from practice to competition. She says the biggest part of archery is the mental side. Her training includes using an archery phone app that allows her to compete virtually with teams around the globe. Perhaps they may be some of the same archers whom she will compete against in the Olympics. Will being only 17 be an advantage or a disadvantage on the big stage in Tokyo? It will be so neat when she does well and people all over the world will talk about this young girl from Lancaster, Pennsylvania. You read that right...LANCASTER, PENNSYLVANIA! Go, Casey! We in Lancaster County are cheering for you! It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.
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