The Oklahoma State Archery Club will send one of its members to compete in the 2015 Universiade Games at Gwangju, South Korea
When she’s not studying or working, Oklahoma State University junior Brogan Williams of Stillwater is practicing her archery. In addition, she’s also the vice president of the archery club at OSU alongside the president, Gray Williams, her older brother. Their parents, Daryl and Shawna Williams, are the team’s coaches. Other officers for the club include secretary Megan Davis and treasurer Mylissa Stover.
“I have been shooting competitively for about a year and a half,” Davis said. “I enjoy the challenge of bettering my archery scores by trying new techniques and talking with more experienced shooters, and I hope to improve my shooting even more in my time here at Oklahoma State.”
A member of the 2015 Junior USA Archery Team, Williams is known as one of the best collegiate archers in the country. Over the last six years, she has competed in 91 different competitions; she placed first in 41 of them, second in 13 and third in 14.
“I am an extremely dedicated archer and see archery in my future,” Brogan Williams said. “I am excited to be on a team with my brother and other shooters from Oklahoma representing the OSU Cowboys.”
Some of her most recent accomplishments include winning the USA Indoor Nationals at Texas A&M in 2015, the Vegas World Indoor Shoot in 2013 and setting a world record with her teammate at the World Archery Indoor Championships in 2014. Now she is preparing for the Universiade games, which begin July 3.
“I hope to be an inspiration and build the OSU archery program into an outstanding program that will draw archers to OSU,” she said.
The Universiade is a 12-day event that brings about 20,000 student athletes from 170 countries together to compete in different events including gymnastics, basketball, swimming, archery, golf and Taekwondo. It is the largest multi-sport event after the Olympics, with 48 percent of Olympic medalists also being Universiade medalists. The event is held every odd-numbered year and alternates between summer and winter games.
Team members spend as much time as possible practicing their archery. Many of the team’s practices have been held from 9 p.m. to midnight because there was no other time when everybody could meet.
“Brogan's senior year in high school, there were numerous people and businesses who recommended her for high school athlete of the week, and they all were told that archery is not a sport, and they are not athletes,” Shawna Williams said. “It is a sport in the Olympics; they are athletes. They train to have the stamina needed to shoot the number of shots that they shoot in a target competition. They also work on equipment in a scientific way to gain any small advantage.”
The archery club was founded two years ago by current president Gray Williams. Since then, the club has grown from six active members to more than 20 and was able to send two archers to the 2014 US Collegiate Archery Association National Indoor competition at Texas A&M.
“It’s still growing; It’s still small,” Gray Williams said. “Archery is becoming a big sport in Oklahoma, and many of the state’s archers go down to Texas universities and colleges, where there are huge archery programs. So I wanted to get that started here and keep them in state.”
Gray Williams is obtaining his Master’s Degree in aerospace engineering, is a graduate teaching assistant and shoots competitively. He has won many state competitions including the Sooner State Games competition and has competed alongside national and world ranking archers.
To help the team travel to South Korea, a travel grant of $500 was awarded to the team as well as a $4,000 grant to help in purchasing equipment and coaching certifications to further the growth of OSU Archery.
“Right now, the club gets $300 a year from OSU but must pay half of it back,” Shawna Williams said. “Brogan’s arrows alone cost almost $500 a dozen. So needless to say, we’ve had to finance a lot of the equipment ourselves. These grants help a bunch. We’ve also set up the club as an Explorer Post with the Boy Scouts of America to quickly obtain access to archery equipment and facilities.”
Brogan Williams is studying psychology. She’s due to graduate in May 2016 and hopes to continue competing in archery and furthering her career.
For more information on the 2015 Universiade games, go to gwangju2015.com. The Archery Club webpage can be found at archery.okstate.edu.
Story by Matt Cohlmia
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