Steven Coleman
The Beginning
I guess it was 1980 or so when I started my archery career. Like most hunters who wanted an earlier start to the hunting season, I picked up my first bow, a Whitetail II, and a new life began. I hunted for years, loving every minute of it. I fell so much in love with archery I sold all my guns.
In 1991, I joined the US Army and another world opened to me. A few years later, I moved to Fort Gordon, Georgia, where I got to see another side of archery, target shooting. There I became a member of the Thompson Field Archery Club (TFAC) and the National Field Archery Association (NFAA), where I got my first tastes of indoor, field and 3-D tournament archery.
In 2002, I made my first trip to the NFAA Outdoor Tournament at Watkins Glen, New York. After a tour of duty to Korea, I relocated to Washington State in late 2003. There I joined the Skookum Archers and have been a member ever since.
In about mid-2004 or so, I retired the compound bow and picked up a recurve and started my FITA (Fédération Internationale de Tir à l’Arc AKA The World Archery Federation based in Lausanne, Switzerland) career. I haven’t looked back since.
It Continues
With the aid of my Archery Club, Skookum Archers member of the Washington State Archery Association , I began offering an Open Archery Night consisting of a free two-hour introduction to the wonderful world of Archery. I’m happy to say this program survived my deployment to Iraq and Kuwait and subsequent retirement from the military. My fellow club members still run the program back in Washington State. I never expected we were creating a program that would continue to last this long and touch over a thousand new archers every year.
Teaching new archers became a very important part of my life during that time. In 2004, I became a certified USA Intermediate Archery Instructor and continued my training until, in 2010, I became a USA Archery and NFAA Certified Community Coach.
I travel to as many major tournaments as I can every year including the Archery Festival in Las Vegas, the Arizona Cup in Phoenix, AZ, the Western Classic Trail and NFAA Marked 3D National Championship in Redding, CA, the USA Archery Outdoor Nationals and the NFAA Outdoor Nationals. I also attend many local tournaments here in South Carolina where my wife and I retired in August 2011.
In January 2011 and again in 2012, I had the pleasure of being selected as the Archery Coach for the Warrior Games which are held in Colorado Springs, CO. The Warrior Games is a competition like the Olympics established by the US Military. Disabled Veterans participate in these games as a rehabilitative and competitive outlet in appreciation for their service to our Great Nation.
On 1 Aug 2011, I retired from the US Army and moved to South Carolina to follow my dream and love of archery. I plan to shoot in as many tournaments as I can and teach archery to whomever wants to learn for as long as I am able. Since retiring, I have been involved with Wounded Warrior Archery and hope to continue to be so for many years to come.
Archery Background
- NFAA & USA Archery Community Coaching Certified
- Selected as the 2011/12 Archery Coach for the US Army Archery Team competing in the Warrior Games
- Coaching since 2004
- Army Instructor for 6 years
- Boy Scouts for 15 years
- Competitive Target Archer in both Compound and Recurve
- Shooting for over 20 years