Today we’d like to introduce you to Melinda Hawley.
Hi Melinda, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I started shooting back in 2000, as Y2K was a little unpredictable. I didn’t know I was left eye dominant until I was an adult, so when picking my first bow, I decided to try left hand shooting, and I am so glad I did! My husband had learned how to shoot when he was 9, and he had put his bow away when he got to be about 16 because he didn’t realize there was other things he could do with archery than just try to hit a bullseye, so throughout our dating and engagement, and even the first couple years we were married, I didn’t even know he had a bow. When he said he wanted to get his bow back out, I was excited for the idea of going and getting a bow for me too! The first thing I really did besides practice shooting at square targets, my husband and I got into shooting 3D animal targets, as it was good practice for hunting, which was why he wanted to get his bow back out. Competing in 3D shoots proved to be so much fun that when our oldest son was around 2.5 years old, he wanted to join us in trying shooting! So we got a cheap $9 K-Mart bow and he started shooting with us. He turned out to really love shooting and we told some friends that we had taught him, and they wanted us to teach their kids. When we needed equipment to be able to teach all these people, the national wild turkey federation stepped in to give us a grant. The people who’s children we had taught now told their friends and before we knew it, we had taught over 1k kids in our first 3 years. We taught archery at festivals and Wild game dinners and at a variety of different youth events all over the city, and even within a couple states away. We decided it might be ideal to have some specific training just in case someone were to ask what makes us qualified to teach archery. We met a couple that said that they could give us certification through the ASA. So we took a trip to Saint Louis, MO and gained that certification. Around 2006, Google had become a little more popular and we needed new insurance for some 3D tournaments we were running as a fundraiser to open our indoor facility. The USA Archery program was offering insurance for $220 a year no matter how many tournaments we held, which was an incredible difference than $700 per tournament that we had been paying. When I explained to the person I spoke to at USA Archery about needing this insurance, she asked me to tell her a little bit more about our program. So I explained to her what had happened and how we got started, and she asked if we would ever consider coaching for them. I then said it all depends on what it entails, or what that means. So that next year, we ended up going to South Dakota to receive our level 1 and level 2 training as instructors. A few years later, we went to Massachusetts to receive our level 3 coach certification. And a few years later, we went to California to attempt to receive our level 4 certification. Out of 22 students in that class, only 13 of us passed. As a level 4 competitive archery coach, my husband and I are two of four in the state of missouri, and two of only a couple hundred in the country. We can take someone from the basics to the olympic level or anywhere in between. And we can take not just one athlete but a whole competitive team and give them workouts and eating regimens. We can help them to create new habits and do additional crosstraining in other sports that add to their archery skills, as well as shooting regimens to help them achieve whatever competition goals they’re looking for. We opened our indoor archery range in December of 2014 in Independence, MO, and have given the opportunity for the Kansas City metropolitan area the opportunity to learn archery and have a place they can come indoors out of the elements to dial in their own equipment. People who want to come and receive help in their archery skills can join in a variety of class options and we give every day the opportunity for people to come and try archery in our intro lessons. People even come from hours and states away to have private lessons with us and to have us work on their equipment. We offer group lessons that anybody can join that start the first week of every month, and they run in 8 or 9 week sets of classes. We also offer private lessons booked on each persons schedule. We have archery tag where people can come and shoot each other with foam tip arrows (kind of like dodgeball with arrows – so much fun for birthday parties, youth events, graduation parties and corporate events and bachelor and bachelorette parties). We also have a pro shop with used and new equipment available. And we work on pretty much every bow, from every era. If it’s still shootable and we can still get parts for it, we will make it happen. We have a passion for Archery and when people leave our facility, we hope they have gained “the archery bug” and want to obtain that passion as well!
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Not always smooth, but we gave this adventure to God when we first started it back in 2003 and He has blessed us everywhere possible in every step of the way. We have so many testimonies of how He has worked out the little details and the big details. Our current hurdle is that after almost 12 years of being at this facility, there is a new company that has come to purchase the shopping center and they have raised our rate to a significant enough level that we cannot stay at this location. So we are hoping to find our next facility very soon, so that people can still continue to come and learn to shoot bows and arrows with us! And the community can continue to have a place to come indoors to practice with their own equipment for whatever level of competition or hunting practice they desire.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
My professional career started out in nursing, which actually makes me a really great a teacher for archery because of my orthopedic background and physical therapy background. The thing i’m most proud of would be in 2019, I was voted as the national female developmental coach of the year, which means I surpassed all other female coaches in the country, which was pretty cool! Being a female in the sport of archery is unique to itself. Although, in the last couple decades, we’ve added a lot of females to the sport. However, my theory is in a predominantly male sport, you have to do whatever you can to show that it’s awesome to be a girl, so I have pink and purple strings and pink and purple accents on my competitive bow!
Risk taking is a topic that people have widely differing views on – we’d love to hear your thoughts.
We have taken a few risks over the years with different investments and even companies that want to offer working capital. In a service environment, it is really a surprise party every day because we never know who’s going to come visit and what we might do that day, We might have something scheduled, or a few things scheduled, but a majority of the things that happen at the range end up being kind of a surprise. We might do makeup lessons or intro lessons or private lessons on a whim, because someone happened to be shopping at one of the local stores in our shopping center. We might sell some equipment or we might not. We might do an intro lesson, and then that person may love it so much that they want to buy a bow. We just never know how it’s gonna go. My husband says I am eternally optimistic. So a lot of things that may or may not necessarily be doable to someone else, I’m willing to try, as long as it feels like it’s reasonable. So we take our competitive team ziplining in the summertime and we take them kayaking, which both help a lot in archery. I have taught quite a few students over the years how to kayak and how to let go when ziplining!
Pricing:
- $35 for an intro lesson.
- $35 per lesson, over 8 or nine weeks to join group lessons, plus a $25 deposit.
- $50 for private lesson with any of our staff if you have your own equipment
- $225 for an unlimited hour of Archery tag, meaning you can bring as many players as you like and we fit as many games as we can in an hour. We have enough equipment for up to 30 to play at the same time.
- $20 for lane rental if you have your own equipment, and it’s still by 1 hour, get the second hour free.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.cbayou.org
- Facebook: https://Facebook.com/archeryexcellence
- Twitter: RcheryXcellence
