TARGET CACTUS: Residents hit bullseye with modern take on ancient sport

Michael Higashi will never forget the first time he shot an arrow.

“It was terrible,” the Maricopa resident said.

A competitive shooter since 1979, Higashi took up the sport in 2009 in response to a gun ammunition shortage.

“I bought a used bow and some equipment, and I took it out to the range. I couldn’t pull it back,” he recalled. “It was kind of demoralizing because you just assume as a man, you can just do it. But there’s more to it.”

But once he adjusted the bow and took a few lessons?

“After that, it was wonderful,” he said. “It became my meditative time.”

Fellow Maricopa archer Jennifer Feickert had a more successful start with sport. Introduced to archery amid the pandemic, she found it exhilarating.

“It was a little nerve-wracking because I’ve never done anything like that before,” she said. “But when I saw that arrow fly out, it was such a powerful feeling. I was hooked.”

Rise, fall and rise again
Pickleball may be the country’s fastest-growing sport, but archery has slowly picked up the pace.

In 2021, archery ranked the seventh-most popular sport on social media platforms and this year’s Vegas Shoot set a record attendance with nearly 4,000 archers registering for the event.

It’s all part of a rise and fall trend archery has seen over the centuries.

Initially a toll of hunters and warriors throughout the world, the oldest known arrowheads date back at least 64,000 years. Arrowheads, bow fragments and art depicting various forms of archery have been found in Europe, Asia and the Americas.

However, once firearms entered the picture in the 16th century, archery’s popularity took a hit. More powerful and more deadly, guns became the preferred weapon for hunting and warfare.

It took a couple of centuries, but eventually archery gained a modest popularity as a leisure sport for Europe’s aristocracy. It slowly trickled down to the middle class and its fashion wavered in the decades since.

It seems that tie to tradition entices some to the sport, as it did for 16-year-old Maricopa resident Asher Goncalves.

“We always see it in movies,” he said. “We see Legolas in ‘Lord of the Rings’ where he turns his bow, and it just looks so fun and easy.”

It was a similar draw for local resident Henry Turner.

“I’ve been shooting since 1973,” he said. “I bought my first bow because all my buddies were talking about hunting a deer with bows. That never happened, but I just instantly fell in love with it.”

In 2020, the Archery Trade Association estimated 17 million Americans participate in some form of recreational archery and more than 5 million shoot competitively.

Bow with the flow
Joe Goncalves first entered the world of archery in 2017 when his son was exposed to the sport through the Maricopa Trailblazers 4-H Club.

“I do like archery the best,” he said. “It’s very relaxing. You have to remain calm and put out the bad shots and just relax and breathe and take that next shot.”

His son, Asher, agreed.

“It’s very meditative when I’m doing it alone because I know where I am, where I can stand, what I can do,” Asher said. “Guns are cool but they’re loud and don’t make me as happy.”

Despite Higashi’s failed first attempt at archery, he also finds solace in the sport.

“This is my meditative time when I can think about my breathing, I can think about my stance, I can think about releasing the arrow and letting it go,” he said. “And that’s all I need. I don’t even have to hit anything. I just have to be there in the moment.”

Feickert agreed.

“With archery, you have to know how to relax and how to breathe,” she said. “You can’t shoot an arrow when you’re all tensed up. You’ve got to relax, you got to drop your shoulders, you got to drop your forehead.”

That relaxation is partly what Goncalves said helps 4-H “make championship kids,” but also the excitement in hitting a target.

“You get that immediate gratification of seeing where you hit,” he said. “And there’s always that little possibility of that oddball shot where you stick in another arrow. The Robinhood shot.”

Bringing it home
Higashi estimates Maricopa is home to at least 200 archers based on a callout he made earlier this year.

“I posted on Facebook asking if anyone was interested in starting an archery club,” he said. “I got 145 responses at the time.”

Since then, the Maricopa Archery Club’s scrappy but robust membership is attempting to draw new members and eventually acquire an archery range for city residents.

Unless they have safe access to a wide swath of land to properly set up targets, archers in Maricopa are usually forced to travel to Chandler or Casa Grande to use outdoor and indoor ranges.

But that’s not always the case.

“I’ve seen people shooting in the washes around town, all over the place,” Higashi said, conceding, “It’s not the best practice.”

At the Maricopa Veterans Day Parade last month, the 4-H club’s float was decked out in archery targets. Maricopa’s 4-H club uses Goncalves’ land for a makeshift range, but even he said an official range would be beneficial.

“I think a range would help open the sport up to a lot more people,” he said. “I kicked around the idea, but I wasn’t sure who to talk to.”

In October, the Maricopa Archery Club contacted the city’s Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee for assistance in moving forward with a municipal range. An initial proposal for the range would allow archers to shoot upwards of 100 yards, which could allow the group to host competitions.

“We have plenty of land,” Turner said. “We’re not shy of land. We just want it to be something for the community to start out with.”

The December edition of InMaricopa Magazine is in Maricopa mailboxes and available online.