My Biography
Born in La Plata, Maryland and raised in a small town in Maine, I always had a fascination for weapons. Strange you say? Strange enough, that it lead me to start martial arts. I wanted to learn to use the Japanese katana. My plight eventually took me to Japan to study with the true masters of Japanese sword fighting. However, I never imagined the fight my body would put up against the intense physical training required to wield and cut with a heavy steel sword. But the fight started at age seven in a major car accident. A few years ago my back nearly won the battle but after seven months of rehab, I returned and won a World Title and became the youngest instructor in the art of Soga-Ryu iai-batto-jutsu. I continued my love of the Japanese sword and earned the rank of san-dan (3rd level black belt) in Toyama-Ryu iai-batto-jutsu and also achieved san-dan in the Zen Nihon To-Do Renmei. I know, I know, I need start a webpage just dedicated to my other life as a swordswoman in Japan! However deep my passion was, the battle still raged on and I decided to retire swinging swords in favor of being able to walk.
I was OK with retirement for...let's see...one day. I still wanted to do martial arts. And there were not a lot of options for someone with a screwy back. One day I decided to try traditional Japanese archery called kyudo and that began a new passion. Feel free to read more from my submissions to “The Glade”. Shooting a 7˝ ft. bamboo bow required a certain amount of finesse that I lacked due to a shoulder handicap and after some coercion from a friend; I started shooting an Olympic recurve in April 1999. Just a year later I switched to compound due to nerve problems in my hand stemming from my shoulder problem. But where there's a will... What doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger… and so forth.
I broke several records and won the 2001 Japanese Nationals despite reoccurring back problems. By 2002 I was shooting recurve again and moved back to the US to pursue a spot on the US World Field Team. After earning a place on my first world team, I placed 8th in Australia. In 2003, I was alternate for the World Indoor team and spring of 2003 I decided to shoot compound again and earned a place on the US World Target Team. Our team broke the 3X144 world record and also captured the Gold medal. I placed 5th individually.
2003 was a “dream year” for
me. I won every FITA and Olympic round in all three National Cup events. I won a spot on the World Target team and we won the World
Championships and broke the
record. Atop this, I made the
2004 US National Archery Team
for compound bow. It doesn’t get much better than this. I then decided to pour my heart into making the US Olympic Team for 2004…
but things don’t always go as planned… check out the news articles and decide for yourself whether adversity can drive a person to succeed or fail.
After a few years of non stop
physical ailments, losing my
chance at the Olympic games and
my place on the 2005 US National
Team, I was certain
that I was either meant to quit
archery or that I was getting a
heck of a lesson in mental
attitude. In 2006, I got
back on the National Team for
compound bow and won the Texas Shootout
and a spot on the World Cup Team
in which my highest placement
was 9th and team bronze.
Finally, I felt as though I was
getting my archery back.
Yet, I was mistaken...
I reinjured my back and my
mental game plummeted because I
was focusing more on what I
had achieved and not on what
I could achieve. It was a difficult decision
but the end of 2007 into 2008, I opted to take 8 months off to preserve my
future in
archery, not the past I had been
dwelling on.
After defying the doctors who
insisted I have surgery to
repair two herniated discs in my
back, I did my own
rehabilitation walking 6 miles a
day in Berlin while researching
the 96 miles of the former
Berlin Wall. In April I
ran for the first time in over a
year and began my 2008 archery
season shooting pain free.
While I didn't attend many
tournaments in 2008, I met my
goals and made my 4th US World
Field Team and my 3rd National
Team. This time with
Olympic bow.
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