Hunter Chipley’s pursuit of success in the world of archery has led to him being selected for the Archery Canada national development squad.
Chipley, an Estevan resident who is the son of Ken Chipley and Monai Wanner, was selected for the program late last year and already attended a training camp in Winnipeg in November. Another camp will occur in February.
“I believe it’s going to help a lot,” said Chipley. “I have lots of opportunities. This year there are quite a few different events.”
He could be selected to attend competitions in the U.S., Europe or Colombia.
“They have options to select who they want to go to these, but we’re each selected for one of three international events,” said Chipley.
The November training camp had a couple of participants in Chipley’s age group of junior, and athletes in a number of other divisions.
“We worked on form changes and just having fun shooting and playing mini games inside of archery, and different little things to see how we would react to different tasks thrown at us,” he said.
Younger athletes were assigned a handicap, so the older athletes would have to shoot a perfect score during games.
“They wanted to see how we would react to different things being thrown at us,” said Chipley.
The February camp will include fitness testing at the site where Olympic athletes train, and they will get to work on their shooting and have one-on-one time with instructors.
He has already noticed a difference in his abilities.
“It’s been a really big eye opener, and my form has changed lots, and I’ve started working on different things and shooting different arrows. So I have definitely seen an improvement just outside of archery. Working at school, I’m definitely more positive about stuff … and if something comes into your life that you can’t control, you have to live with it.”
Two years ago, he travelled Toronto to work with Joan McDonald, who is the head coach of the program right now. He worked with her for a weekend, and since that time, he has attended a couple of camps to further develop his form.
“Just last year, they … said that they selected me for the team, and I could be on it if I wanted to,” said Chipley.
It was a pretty easy decision for him to say yes, and to get the opportunity to work with McDonald and Olympic coach Shawn Riggs.
Since then, they have complimented him on his positive attitude and his willingness to listen to the coaches.
“If they’re trying to get me to do something, like change my form in any way, and I see the Olympic or the national team working on that same thing, it gives me a bit of a boost to actually try to do it, because it will improve my form and my shooting all-together.”
Only three people from the west – one other person from Saskatchewan and one from Alberta – are on the team. The rest are from the Toronto area.
The selection to the National Development Squad is the latest chapter in what was a very successful year for Chipley. He won two medals with Team Saskatchewan at the Canada Winter Games, which led to him being named Saskatchewan’s flag bearer for the closing ceremonies. Chipley knows that McDonald and Riggs were watching him at the Games, which contributed to this latest opportunity that could open even bigger doors for him in the sport.
