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Golden archers Orange County amateur archers are aiming high. By Renne Gardner  At the 1996 Atlanta Summer Olympics, 21-year-old Justin Huish of Simi Valley came from behind to win a gold medal in his sport. Huish's vic-tory - combined with a heap of attitude punctuated by long hair and a backward baseball cap - landed him on the late-night talk show circuit. His moment in the spotlight helped raise the profile of a relatively obscure Olympic sport. In 2000, a Hollywood actress attempted to make the U.S. Olympic team and attracted more media attention for the bow-and-arrow set. Geena Davis didn't make the women's archery team three years ago, but if Gary Holstein of Mission Viejo has his way, some young people from Orange County could make the Olympic team in 2008 or 2012. Holstein, 44, is head coach and one of the founders of the Saddleback Archery Club based in San Juan Capistrano. A self-employed network consultant, Holstein was introduced to archery through a summer camp program when he was 8 years old. "They would drag me kicking and screaming away from the archery range every day," he remembers. More recently, Holstein organized what became the largest single week archery camp in the country with 85 targets for the Saddleback District Cub Scout Day Camp Program at O'Neill Park. The formation of the Saddleback Archery Club two years ago was a natural progression from the scout camp, he says. "We want mom and dad and kids to come down to the archery range, bring lunch and have a good time," Holstein says about the family orientation of the club. "We've got equipment. On the weekends, we've got a couple of coaches on the range to facilitate and make sure everything stays safe." The primary program offered by Saddleback Archery is centered on the National Archery Associa-tion Junior Olympic Archery Development, or JOAD program. The goal of the program is to develop national, Olympic and world-class athletes with instruction, training, informal club competition and official, sanctioned competition.  I'm introduced to the core of the Saddleback JOAD team. Lucas Reiss, 13, is in the 8th grade. His sister, Mackenzie Reiss, 14, attends Capistrano Valley High School. Daniel and Sara Holstein, both 14 and fraternal twins, are Gary's kids. Their first tournament was the Junior Olympic Archery Development Indoor National Championships last year in Tulare. "The first time out of the box they did better than I ever thought they'd do," Holstein says about their finish in the top half. "It's fun," says Mackenzie about why she likes archery. "You can leave all your problems at home when you go to the range." Sara owns three bows, one of them pink. "It's kind of relaxing to get up on the line," she says, "and just shoot." Lucas has lofty goals. "My goal is to go to the Olympics," he says. Practice, technique and mental discipline are keys to improvement. Holstein's son, Daniel, is on the range 4 to 5 days a week shooting arrows. In addition to the technique of shooting, Holstein says, the mental aspect of the sport is crucial. "Realistically speaking, once you have the basic form down, the mental component is 90 percent of the sport. It's critical to be able to focus and ignore distractions." The coaching and practice seem to be paying off. In the recently released State Archers of California rankings, Lucas is third in his division and Mackenzie is fourth in hers. Sara is two behind Mackenzie in sixth and Daniel is ranked fourth. The head coach is currently ranked 14th in the state in the Senior Men's division. "Always loved it," Holstein says about the sport. "There is a certain satisfaction you get from executing a shot and that arrow goes in the middle. My goal when I was a kid was to qualify for the 1976 Olympic trials. I did that." The current outdoor tournament format involves four distances. The juniors shoot at 50, 40, 30 and 20 meters. The adults shoot 90 and 70 meters the first day, 50 and 30 meters the second day. Thirty-six arrows are shot at each distance with a maximum possible score of 1,440. This multi-distance, two-day format also is the old Olympic format for archery competition. In 1992, it was changed to a competition shot solely at 70 meters. Sixty-four competitors shoot 72 arrows at 70 meters for ranking into a single-elimination round. In the head-to-head competition, Olympic archers then shoot 18 arrows against a single competitor. Twelve-arrow rounds decide the quarters and semis. "It's much more exciting to watch because you don't need 144 arrows to find out who wins," says Holstein. "Cheering is encouraged. It's one of the reasons we're working more with mental discipline." In addition to the Olympic sport, there is a number of other types of archery. A clout shoot is like playing golf with an arrow. Place a target flag in the ground some distance away. Competitors shoot an arrow up and the closest to the flag wins. Flight is a distance competition usually held at the Bonneville Salt Flats. Wins are measured in kilometers, and distance records vary depending on the type of bow. According to Holstein, all the records are either approaching or beyond two kilometers. Three D is a hunter-like competition where archers shoot at foam animals. There are indoor competi-tions, too. Ski archery is similar to biathlon. In horse archery, competitors shoot arrows on horseback. Recreationists dress up in Renaissance garb and shoot long bows. There's bow hunting. Field archery is performed in a natural or wilderness setting among hills, bushes and trees. "There's something in the sport for everybody," says Holstein. The El Toro Archers, founded in 1954 as a military accommodation for MCAS El Toro, is a local archery club that focuses primarily on field archery. According to Jason Conner, 39, president of El Toro Archers, field archery is the outdoorsman's equivalent of golf. "You venture across the range through a variety of terrain and shoot at targets in many different situations," he explains. "You can hone your technique on the practice range and shoot hundreds of arrows, or you can hike around and challenge yourself with difficult shots in the field." Conner, director of technology for the UC Irvine School of the Arts, has been doing archery for more than 20 years. The membership of El Toro Archers currently numbers about 250 and includes people from all walks of life, including families, students, trades-men, professionals, veterans and retirees. The club hosts archery tournaments approximately every other month and operates the only field-archery range in Orange County on 20 acres, staged in a natural setting at the closed Marine base. "The key to archery is consistency," says Conner. "You learn to draw your bow the same, hold it the same, aim the same and release the same, every time." Good technique aids this process, he says, while practice trains your body and mind. Relaxation and focus become the key to archery marksmanship. "It may seem counterintuitive," Conner adds, "but archery is actually a very calm and relaxing sport." Conner advises beginners to take indoor archery lessons first to learn good technique and determine equipment preferences. Or come out to a club archery range, suggests Holstein. The Saddleback Archery Club does a free introductory course on weekends that will get a beginner shooting arrows almost immediately. Bows and arrows are provided. The Saddleback club currently numbers around 60 families. Membership in the club includes use of the range and equipment, and working with a coach on weekends. If you don't have your own equipment, says Holstein, then you're limited to weekends from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., when staff is available. Beginning in January, the Saddleback Archery Club will host a tournament once a quarter that will be called the South Coast Championship Series, composed of the winter, spring, summer and fall classics. Series trophies will be awarded. "We are continuing to grow," says Holstein. "We are adding more programs. Saddleback is the only Olympic-style outdoor range between Long Beach and San Diego." Making recent news in the sport of archery is the rapid rise up the senior women ranks of 60-year-old Phyllis Shipman, a retired elementary school principal from Hawaii. Shipman is currently ranked 8th among American women and is training full-time at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista, the largest full-time archery facility in the country. Archery experts say that Shipman has an excellent chance of representing the USA at the 2004 Athens Games. If she makes the team, at 61, she would be the oldest American woman to compete in the Olympics. Both Holstein and Conner agree that archery demands good judgment, skill, persistence and individual responsibility. It is a sport that can be enjoyed for life, and builds great friendships. One can be very competitive at a young age or even later in life. Perhaps even make an Olympic team. OCM Renne Gardner is OC METRO's OC Outside columnist. Letters to the editor go to: Feedback@ocmetro.com. ARROW SET Where and how: The Saddleback Archery Club range is located on the grounds of Rancho Capistrano, 29251 Camino Capistrano, San Juan Capistrano, CA 92675. Hours of operation are Saturday and Sunday 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.. P.O. Box 51102, Irvine, CA 92618 e-mail: membership@saddlebackarchery.org (949) 452-1770 www.saddlebackarchery.org ïïï The El Toro Archery field archery range is located at 21515 Magazine Rd., Irvine, off Irvine Boulevard, between Alton Parkway and Desert Storm Drive. Range access gate is locked at all times. An active member must accompany guests. The field range is open 7 days a week, from dawn to dusk. P.O. Box 64, Lake Forest 92609 (949) 655-3000 ext. 4993 e-mail: eltoroarchers@onebox.com www.geocities.com/eltoroarchers/ ïïï Red Stagg Archery in Fountain Valley is a local archery shop that provides lessons and indoor shooting leagues. Red Stagg Archery 18792 Brookhurst Street (714) 965-1125 www.redstagarchery.com For additional Southern California archery links, check out: www.socalarchery.com/ - By Renne Gardner
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