Local archer to go for gold in 2017

Melissa Strle
Times Reporter

This summer, a provincial archery team was created that will be attending the 2017 North American Indigenous Games in the Toronto area next July.
Fred Matthews, a Level 2 archery coach who competes and coaches out of the Capital Region Archery Club in Edmonton, was selected as coach for the provincial team.
The team is comprised of six members representing different indigenous areas around the province of Alberta. Local archer Warren Collins will be representing the Indigenous and Metis communities from Cochrane and Morley.
Matthews said Collins, the biggest medal hopeful on the team, has been busy competing in mainstream archery areas for the last couple of years. He has won many gold medals, and medaled in every major tournament that he has competed in, including the Alberta Winter Games, the Outdoor Provincial 3D Championships and the Alberta Indoor Target Championships.
Collins said he has high goals for the games.
“I would like to bring home gold for my community and my family and all my coaches and teammates,” said Collins.
The team is comprised of some very talented archers.
“All of these athletes are very talented and have a lot of skill. So for the next year it’s a matter of refining that skill and improving their fitness levels,” said Matthews.
According to Matthews, the last time the Alberta archery team competed in the games, they didn’t do that well, but he is expecting significantly better results given the fact they will have a lot more preparation time this year.
The team will be training together once a month at the Capital Region Archery Club in Edmonton and, as the games get closer, they will be moving to other facilities with more space. Team members will also be training through facilities at home throughout the month.
Collins will be training one to two hours a day at his home, the Cochrane Archery Club and Jim-Bow’s Archery.
Matthews is guiding team members for the games through a comprehensive training program where they are required to focus on nutrition, perform fitness three times a week and practice shooting two scorecards per week.
“We don’t know what the competition field is going to look like and we need them to be as fit as possible given that they may end up having to climb up and down hills in order to make shots,” said Matthews. “The better their aerobic fitness is, the more likely they are to be able to control their heart rate and to control their level of nervousness.”
Team members were chosen at a selection camp on the August long weekend, and three females and three males were chosen based on the highest combined scores from a two-day competition.
Team members represent the Woodland Cree First Nation, the Montana First Nation, the Samson First Nation, the Dene Tha First Nation and Cochrane.
Matthews said one of the highlights of the games will be showcasing the First Nations culture and how sport plays an important role in the development of First Nations youth. He said one of the reasons the games were created was to provide opportunity for First Nations youth to be involved in mainstream sport.
Collins plans on holding fundraisers throughout the year within his community to help raise money for the games, since the government provides no funding for athletes to attend the games. Players need to raise money for travel costs, equipment maintenance and upgrades, and team uniforms.
Collins has his eyes set on the Olympics and is hopeful that the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo will introduce compound archery as an event so that he has a chance to compete. Currently, only recurve archery is an Olympic sport.