To use my wife's analogy, one chapter ends and another begins.

For whatever reasons the new owners of the archery club that our daughter has shot for for the past several years has decided to suspend their youth program. They have decided to go in a new direction of fun and recreational archery rather than a serious competition team.

Unfortunately the transition has been handled extremely poorly by the new ownership. The coaching staff feels like they've been thrown under the bus. Even worse, the youth archers feel like they've been abandoned. They don't understand business and politics, all they've seen is that their team, their friendships and a part of who they are has been taken away.

This has been especially hard on our daughter. She was one of the original members of the club's competition team and been a staff shooter for the club for years. She set most of her state records and her national record while representing the club. It's been a big part of who she is. While as adults we look at it, sort through the options and pick a direction to move forward, it's a lot harder for a teenage girl to do that.

Fortunately another JOAD club in Phoenix has stepped up and offered a new home for the archers and the coaches. Most of the program will be joining Desert Sky Archers at Ben Avery Shooting Facility. I'm extremely thankful to them for providing a direction to move forward in.

Friday night was the first full session at Desert Sky. Our daughter really did not want to go, she was that upset. Mom basically told her she was a leader, people were expecting her to be there and she had to go. While trying to comfort her, our wife came up with the chapter closing analogy. To quote our daughter,

"Mom, it's more like a Stephen King book, it's a really great story with a really shitty ending."

She went, she shot and she probably had more fun with archery on Friday night than she's had in a very long time. It's one of the reasons I've been thankful our daughter has been involved in archery. It's not learning how to shoot a bow, it's learning how to deal with change, failure, victory and how to deal with them.

Thank you for sharing. I'm glad to hear the story continues and look forward to many more chapters.

It's great to hear that others in the community realize how valuable and meaningful having the club is to people who have given it so much time and effort. I was worried when I saw the title to your post and was relieved to read how much Maya enjoyed the new facility. Starting a new program from the ground floor will be challenging but, as you know, can be very rewarding and a great learning experience for her, too!

So happy to hear this. And also glad Maya hasn’t lost her national class sarcasm either!

Be proud of your daughter for accepting change and making it better.

Thanks for the update,sounds like she is learning life's roadblocks and over coming them quite well.

So I’m guessing that her shoulder is doing better after the last competition?

I’m really glad to hear that she had a great time on Friday. I hope she continues to enjoy it.

Isn’t the trip from Anchorage to Phoenix a little long, or have y’all relocated down here to the desert?

When it comes time, if Frank Smith? is still there, Texas A&M had quite an archery team... (I think Frank's last name was Smith...)

Sorry to hear about the changes at her range, but glad that another has stepped up for them.

We're probably getting our oldest her first bow for her birthday this year. Maya's been a bit of an inspiration for her.

Glad she has a new place to shoot.

Glad to see it's working out for her.

And I won't be surprised to hear in a few months that the old club's new business model isn't working out like they thought it would.

Good job on keeping her on course. It's easy to get discouraged some times and the analogy for life lessons are huge.

Cheers~

Wow!
A lot of life lessons to learn here and it sounds like Maya is taking it in stride.

Thanks for sharing.

I love her Stephen King quote. It is the most accurate thing I have ever read!