Trojan Archery

Hello spooky friends! We had a great time watching Alien with all of you at our last movie social! If you missed our last spooky movie night, fear not! Our last Halloween social is this Friday at 7 PM - and we’ll be carving pumpkins over Zoom and watching a family friendly halloween film! Check out the calendar on our website for the link to the zoom social and be sure to vote for what movie you want to watch at the link below. Keep in mind - this is a pumpkin carving contest, so bring your pumpkins, carving kits, and determination this Friday! https://www.google.com/url

Hey everyone! There's been a few update to our schedule for this virtual semester! Today's practice has been cancelled - for updates regarding changes to practice times please check out the calendar on our website. All other events remain the same - Monday Practice, Wednesday/Friday workouts, and Friday Zoom Social. We have some halloween themed zoom socials this month, so come check it out! While we might have temporarily removed a practice time, we have added a new event to... our calendar - Coaches' Corner! Last week we held our first Coaches' Corner virtual book club. We discussed mental processes and visualization, and how you can center yourself and focus on your shot. We had a great turnout, and we hope to see more of you at our next meeting - all are welcome! If you’re interested in attending the next session, it will be Monday, October 19th, at 9PM PDT (Zoom link on website). We will be reading The Art of Failure: Why some people choke and others panic, which you can find at the link below. It’s a much shorter read than last week, so give it a look! http://www.infosurvey.com.my/The%20Art%20of%20Failure.pdf See more

This week we will be officially starting off our virtual practices and workouts! Mondays: 7-10 PM practice with Coach Dan Tuesdays: 5-8 PM practice with Coach Huy Wednesdays: 7-8 PM workout with Coach Max... Fridays: 8-9 AM workout with Michelle We will use Zoom meetings for all practices and workouts, so make sure you join the club so that you can check out the Member's Only section of our website for the links! If you will be attending practice, try to bring a tripod for your phone or filming device. If you plan on attending these workouts, bring a yoga mat, stretch bands, and a bottle of water. Private Coaching In addition to our weekly schedule, our coaches are offering virtual private lessons to those that join our club this semester - even when remote, our coaches are dedicated to your progress and development! Not a member? Look at how to join us in the section below! How to Join: 1. Join us on EngageSC and send your confirmation to Trojan Archery’s email address, [email protected]. 2. Receive Welcome Email when you send us your confirmation! In this email there will be a few links to member-specific information. After checking out these links, you will: - Fill out the New Member Questionnaire so we can send you your member packet! - Join our Trojan Archery Slack Channel where we communicate with each other regarding practices and occasionally send each other memes! - Receive Zoom links for practices, workouts, and workshops all Zoom links are also in the Member-Only Section of our website! - Get access to our Coach's Calendly where you can schedule appointments and private lessons with any of our seven coaches! If you have any questions, feel free to reach out, reply to this post, or email us at [email protected]. Shoot on!

Hello Trojan Archery friends and family! We are so excited to announce the election of our Head Coach for the 2020-22 school years: Dan Kwasniewski Dan is, undoubtedly, one of the most enthusiastic members of the Trojan Archery community - anyone would be able to tell you that after just one competition spent with Dan! Dan has been with us as a student, a president, and a coach, and now we have the privilege of being able to call him our Head Coach. Aside from his commitment to archery, Dan recently earned his PhD from USC in Physical Chemistry and is now teaching at Pasadena City College. This semester, Dan will be working hard to coordinate virtual coaching sessions for all our members. We can't wait to see what this year has in store for our team with Dan helping to lead the way!

Check out our September Newsletter! - https://mailchi.mp/dfd9b13b6029/september-newsletter

Hey everyone! Have you been wondering what Trojan Archery is up to this semester? Check out the infographic below - we’ve outlined our plans for our Archery community and for those that wish to join our club this semester. Anyone that wishes to join the club will have access to group and private lessons, workouts, and workshops - all over Zoom! Check out our At-Home Resources page on our website for more details and let us know if you have any questions by reaching out to us via our email address: [email protected]

With school starting, we are continuing with our meet the officer series on our social media! Today are introducing you to our Barebow Team Captain, Shirley Yu! Shirley is a sophomore majoring in Applied and Computational Mathematics and minoring in Computer Science and Painting. In the past school year, she has grown from a beginner archer to a proud honoree of the 2020 All-American Academic Team. Shirley writes that her favorite memory from her first year practicing archery... was being supported by teammates on nearby bales and shooting her personal best at Indoor Nationals 2020. We are incredibly proud to call Shirley our Captain, and we can’t wait to see her inspire the team to unlock their potentials! This summer, Shirley has kept herself busy in Shanghai by reading fiction, sketching, listening to new K-Pop releases, and playing Animal Crossing. Meanwhile, she is keeping up her archery practice at a local range under social distancing!

Want to get to know our Executive Board a little better? Last week we introduced you to our Recurve Team Captain Aadi Ghildiyal, and this week we want to introduce you to our President, Mac Whitaker! Mac is a Mechanical Engineering 4th year and a part of the Progressive Degree Program for Product Development Engineering. Mac is one of our most accomplished Barebow archers, having joined Trojan Archery his spring semester freshman year after having done archery as an amateur... in his backyard his whole life. He writes that his favorite memory this year was going to the 2020 Vegas Shoot, where he ended up taking 1st in the Men's Barebow Collegiate Division. Mac writes that his favorite part of this competition was "the amazing feeling" he got from "standing on the same line as the barebow greats." Truly, Mac had an outstanding competitive season this year - he made both the 2020 All American and 2020 All American Academic Teams. These two teams are some of the highest honors an archer can receive and we couldn't be prouder to call this accomplished archer and amazing human our President. Mac has kept busy during quarantine, writing, "I’ve been very lucky during quarantine to be living out in the country, where I can get some fresh air and continue to shoot. My family has been living for Saturdays, when we have movie themed nights with a fun dinner and costumes." For more of what he's been doing at home, check out the video below to learn about an exercise that he's been doing - maybe even try it out yourself! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSYuTTMe80I We can't wait to see where he will lead the 2020-2021 Executive Board!

What is it like to train to be an Olympian? Aadi Ghildiyal - one of our archers and newly-appointed team captains - is a Junior at USC with plans to become a doctor, as well as an Olympic archer! Having medalled at state, national, and international competitions and breaking the California state record for collegiate women in Olympic Recurve for 70m, 60m, 30m, and FITA in 2019, Aadi works hard to balance her athletic and school life and reflects on her experiences being a c...ollegiate athlete at 19 years old. She is a two-time honoree of the USA Archery All-American Academic Team, all while pursuing a degree in chemistry and double minor in psychology and health care studies. Having shot for six years with many emotional ups and downs in her career, she noted: It’s always better to have emotions about something than not. Couldn’t agree more! Thanks to Director/Editor Emily Chew Olmos, DP Patrick Lorenz Saulo, Sound Mixer Alex Bologna, and Composer Joshua Siegel for featuring one of our archers and her story! Watch the full short documentary on Vimeo and get to know what’s inside a competitive archer’s mind! https://vimeo.com/431284260

Trojan Archery stands in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement and the communities across the United States and world that are affected daily by systemic racism and police brutality. We have a responsibility to use our platform to fight these injustices and are sharing resources with our community so that we can fight together. As Los Angeles residents and students at USC, Trojan Archery is a representation of people from across the nation and around the world - as ...archers, we are inherently part of a passionate global community. No matter where you are or where you come from, we ALL have an obligation to stand for equality both on the field of play and in life. This may mean doing research, speaking out, and showing up - to see what you can do, please take the time to view the resources in this post. Link: https://tinyurl.com/TrojanArcherySupportBLM

For our final announcement of the 2019-2020 school year, we are excited to introduce our 2020-2021 E-Board! While an in-person fall semester is still up in the air, the new Trojan Archery E-board is working hard to keep building our education program and the USC archery community even while we’re away from the range! We have a Facebook group for our members, alumni, friends, and family, so if you are interested in receiving community updates and archery tips, please visit t...his page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/archery.usc/ We also look forward to implementing a stronger curriculum to help first-time archers advance in their training. The new e-board is excited to welcome new members and help them transition from recreational shooting to competitive shooting. Congratulations and welcome to our new club leaders! Club President Mac Whitaker Treasurer Michelle DeMers Director of Education Henry Scholefield Team Captain (Olympic Recurve) Aadi Ghildiyal Team Captain (Barebow) Shirley Yu Team Captain (Compound) Diego Montano Event Chair Olivia Lin Fundraising Chair Audrey Zhao Armorer Winston Wei

As the academic year is coming to a close, we’d like to give a huge shoutout and thank you to our outgoing 2019-2020 Executive Board for their achievements during Trojan Archery’s 92nd year as a USC organization. The 2019-2020 Board focused their efforts on building a stronger archery curriculum to help introduce more students to archery and helping our seasoned archers advance further in their training. In addition, our educational program this year helped more of our archers make the jump from recreational shooting to competitive shooting. And that’s not all! Here are some of this year’s accomplishments and highlights, thanks to our club’s leaders and coaches.

Congratulations to the Class of 2020 and all of our new Trojan Archery alumni! We are excited to celebrate NINE of our team members and their recent degrees from the University of Southern California. We are sad to say goodbye to this many of our team members, but congratulations again to our graduates - we look forward to seeing what you accomplish. Click through their photos below for their degrees and bios! #USC #USCGrad #2020Trojan

We are excited to announce and give a HUGE WELCOME to the newest members of the 2020 USA All-American and All-American Academic Teams! Congratulations again to Aadi Ghildiyal, Dan Kwasniewski, and Shirley Yu for being in the top 25% of their divisions with a 3.5+ GPA. We couldn't be more proud of our incoming Team Captains and outgoing Coach Dan, PhD! Secondly, a special congratulations to Mac Whitaker for making the USA's All-American Team for Men’s Barebow!... This is one of the most prestigious honors that an archer can earn in Collegiate Archery - which only goes to the Top 10 archers in their division following the end of the competitive season. Since Trojan Archery restarted its Barebow Competitive Team in 2017, Mac has paved the way of success and is the first All-American for the University of Southern California since 2008. This is hopefully the first of many to come not only for our barebow archer division, but the rest of the competitive team. Congratulations to all - we can't wait to see your continued success!

Recognize anyone in the Top 10 for Barebow Collegiate Men? (Answer coming up in our next post!)