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 qualifying FITA and Olympic round in all three National Cup events. I won a spot on the World Target team and we won the World Cup. It doesn’t get much better than this. I then decided to pour my heart into making the US Olympic Team for 2004… 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, 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 came
back 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.
But I was mistaken, not because
I reinjured my back, but that I
was looking back... into the the
past.
It was a difficult decision
but I opted to take 8 months of
rest to preserve my future in
archery, not the past I had been
dwelling on. Now I have a
new start... it is not
where my archery took me, but
where it will take me. We
shall see...
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