My name is Jenna Wickersheim. I have been in archery since fourth grade and am now a senior at Medford Area Senior High in Wisconsin. Throughout my experience in archery, I have faced many challenges and many ups and downs. One of my favorite stories is how I was originally introduced to archery.
I don’t remember much from third grade, but I do remember the day we did archery in gym class. I think it’s one of those memories that will never leave me. At the time, my gym teacher was an archery instructor himself. As it was mostly everybody’s first time shooting, including me, the grading scale was pretty easy. Shooting above a 30 was considered an A. I was in awe as I started shooting in the high 30s, as this was my first time shooting. Archery was something that just came naturally to me and my gym teacher saw that. He recommended to me that I should join the Medford Archery Club for my next year in school.
I was a timid third grader who wasn’t very athletic. I hadn’t considered joining a sport before, because most sports were too physically exerting and uninteresting to me. But I figured archery was the best sport for me to join, considering it was more based on consistency and mentality rather than athleticism. So I took my gym teacher’s advice, and when I went home I told my parents about the archery club. No one in my family knew much about archery at the time, but that would quickly change in the upcoming years.
I mentioned before I was a timid kid, which showed through when I forced my dad to come to every practice with me, so much so that he decided to become a coach. Having my dad at every practice and tournament has been amazing for not only my growth in archery but also for my relationship with my father.
Fast forward eight years and my time in archery is coming to a close. I’ve made a lot of accomplishments throughout the years, but there are still a few goals I have for my last season. Firstly, my main goal for the 2024 season is to finally make the trip to the world championship. My dad and I have made plans for my last year that we would make the trip across the country for the world championship because it’s something that we’ve never done. A more personal goal I have for myself is I want to focus more on archery and practice more. I’ve realized that it isn’t that hard to squeeze a 30-minute practice into my daily schedule every week. I’d also love to set a new personal record. My highest tournament score is 294, and I’d love to see myself make the jump to 295 or higher. Sadly, my first tournament of the year was canceled due to a bad snow storm. It was a bummer seeing it was canceled the day before it was supposed to happen. But hopefully that tournament will be rescheduled and the snow stays away for my next tournaments, so I can start going for the goals I have planned!
