The weekend of April 1-3, Colorado state champion Braden Schmittel shot his way to the S3DA Western National Championship, shooting in the S3DA Olympic Recurve archery division at the championship in Vernal, Utah.
Schmittel has been competing in archery for more than 10 years through local 4-H programs and won on his second trip to nationals, earning him multiple college scholarship offers.
According to Schmittel’s coach Stacey Weyand, who has been coaching archery at the 4-H level for four years, archers are only allowed to shoot one discipline at nationals once before they move on to the next discipline.
Last year at his first appearance at nationals, Schmittel shot in the 3-D discipline and placed 10th overall before moving on to Olympic Recurve this year. Now, he will move on to the compound discipline.
“It's just kind of like any competition,” Schmittel said. “You know, going into it I got high hopes and I had a couple of problems with my bow during it, so I wasn't expecting to win. I was confident I was going to get top three at least, I just didn't think I’d win it.”
After being named national champion, Schmittel was flooded with scholarship offers from 13 colleges and said he has decided to attend a junior college in Illinois called Rend Lake College, where he will work toward his business degree while taking a welding class and competing in archery at the collegiate level.
He said he also hopes to pick up some sponsors and work toward either going pro or competing for a larger college or university in the future.
Schmittel said competing in large competitions like nationals have motivated him to try to keep pursuing the sport at a higher level.
“It's like any sport you know, you do it for a while and it gets a little boring and then you go shoot at those bigger competitions and you just want to keep doing it. You know, it's just really good experience,” he said.
He also spoke of multiple people who have helped and encouraged him along the way and of the support he’s received as he works toward his goals.
“All the people that have helped me get to the point where I'm at have, I wouldn't say pushed, but they've more encouraged me to step outside of my comfort zone, and not just, you know, settle for what I think I deserve and try to go to that next level of competition. And just being encouraging. That's a big thing,” Schmittel said.
“Brad Wright, Kelly and Stacey Weyand, John Butler, as well as Mike, Chuck and everybody at Goods for the Woods … without them you know, I’d probably still be in the same boat as I was several years ago. They've really helped me out a lot. They’ve taken a lot of time out to come up to the range or just help me out. Because, you know, it's kind of hard to be successful at a sport when you don't have the best coaches. I’m just really grateful for all of them,” he continued.
Weyand expressed her excitement about Schmittel winning nationals and noted that he is not only an impressive archer, but a great person to coach as well.
“Braden is also an incredible leader,” Weyand said. “He's the first one to jump in and help one of the younger kids with if they're having trouble shooting or if their form is not quite right or even if they're just having a bad day and kind of having a little bit of attitude. He’s the first one to jump in and try to help them.”
“He's also always considerate of being an example for the younger kids. He's always helpful. He's always the first one to help set up, breakdown and do anything that needs to be done,” she added.
Weyand said she hopes Schmittel will be able to compete at a shoot in Las Vegas which will take place in February 2024, saying that it’s one of the biggest archery shoots worldwide.
Schmittel will graduate from Dolores High School on May 20.
