John: We’re hunters, so I took her out hunting when she was little. I got her a bow when she was five years old, and we would shoot together in the backyard. Then we found these local archery tournaments. She started winning those, so then we found bigger and bigger tournaments and she won those, too.
John & Aliyah | Lodi, WI
It’s always fun to see your kid excel at something. We get to make family vacations out of a lot of the trips, so we get to spend a lot of time with her. It’s fun to go travel with the family and watch her compete. She makes us very proud. The biggest part is, there’s a lot of colleges that have archery teams, so she could get a scholarship. That’s a big goal right there, college.
Aliyah: Last year I got to represent Wisconsin at the State Games of America. We got to carry the Wisconsin flag and walk out with a bunch of other athletes from Wisconsin. This year I’m going to try and make the Cadet USAT team; it’s the US national team for archery. I have to go to all of these different shoots around the country to be able to get on the team.
We’re going to Las Vegas, Chula Vista, California, Arizona, Florida this year. It’s a really cool opportunity. I really want pursue that dream. If I make the team, I’ll get to go to Rome and Turkey, basically all over the world. Once you make that team you can do anything.
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Aliyah: I practice six days a week, about 40 arrows a day. I like the thrill of it, just getting out there and shooting and having an adrenaline rush. It makes me feel powerful, like I can do anything.
My friends that live here in Wisconsin but don’t know much about archery still think that it’s cool that I do it. They’ll come to my house and watch me shoot in the basement sometimes. My archery friends are from all over the country. We always have fun together at archery tournaments. We’ll hang out, shoot against each other, make fun of each other’s accents.
-John & Aliyah | Lodi, WI
