FUN

When an eleven-year-old Kinzie Thomas traveled to Yankton, SD with her dad, Eric, for a national compound bow archery competition—with only local competitions under her belt—the best they hoped for was to get a feel for what higher-level competitive archery was all about.

Words & Photography Jill Ockhardt

Blaufuss

MMandy, Thomas’ mom, said she was taken aback by the results. Eric called her on their way home and told her Thomas had won. “She won what?” Mandy recalled asking Eric, not fully comprehending what he was saying. “She won the whole thing!” he said, laughing. Seemingly out of the blue, young Thomas, inexperienced and with her unrefined hunting-bow setup instead of the sleeker competition setup, won a national title.

The following weekend, back in Yankton for the International Field Archery Association World Indoor Archery Tournament, competing with archers from around the globe, Thomas initially tied for third place. The tiebreak shoot-off landed her the fourth place spot. After two weekends of success beyond their wildest expectations, Thomas and her dad made their way back home to Fargo slightly in shock, knowing that somehow, over the last two weekends, a door had been opened. And it was up to Thomas, and her family, to decide if she was going to walk through it.

That was three years ago. Today, Thomas is busy preparing for the AAE Arizona Cup in Phoenix at the beginning of April, the first of five major U.S. competitions she hopes to compete in this year. She’ll be shooting up a division―in the 18-20 year old junior division―in hopes of becoming one of the topfive-ranking junior archers in the U.S. and achieve her next major goal of qualifying for the United States Archery Team.

Already a seasoned traveler, Thomas has competed nationally as far as Montana, Iowa, Nevada, Utah, California, Florida, Alabama and Kentucky. At age thirteen, Thomas traveled to Rome, Italy as part of the Compound Junior Dream Team―a team comprised of thirty of the most promising young male and female compound archers in the country. Her parents, unable to afford the time away from work and money to travel with her―but knowing they couldn’t deny her that once-in-a-lifetime opportunity―put their trust in the coaches and other parents who accompanied the team across the Atlantic. Huddled around a laptop at three in