Wow, what a great time. Of course, I am talking about the Traditional Bowhunters Of Florida 1999 Florida State Championship held March 5, 6 & 7, 1999 at our Crooked Lake shoot site in Ocala. We had absolutely perfect weather for all our friends visiting from the far reaches of this country and for those that came from other countries as well. It is funny how quickly the days pass during our shoots. It seems like I never have time to visit and talk with everyone as much as I would like. I do enjoy the time I spend with other club members during our shoots; you create a special bond with people when you are working close together for a common cause. That is probably the most rewarding aspect of this job.

Thursday the 4th has to be one for the record books. Rich Nichol, Glenn Pennell, David Tetzlaff & Kelly Tetzlaff had the competition ranges set by lunchtime. That is a whole lot of work for 3 men and one lady, especially considering the amount of time involved. David & Kelly decided to come out early and help with setting up the shoot because they saw my appeal in our previous newsletter. I wish more members felt as they do. Glenn came out to help set-up before going to work Thursday afternoon. That’s the kind of dedication that makes this club #1. After a quick meal, they went to work on the Fun range with Willis Hicks and Woody Wood joining in. Because of their dedicated efforts, we were able to open the fun range at noon on Friday and that brought us much additional income. Thanks! While they were working on our ranges Jim Zetwick, Chris Magdefrau, Shannon Holtz, Wayne Carter and Cass Vickers were helping me try to figure out where the Big Top and other pavilions were supposed to go. You can forget a lot in 7 months, believe me. We finally did get everything up though. Wayne Carter brought a generator and impact hammer for driving the tent stakes again and man what a great job that tool does. Anyone that has driven those stakes with a sledgehammer before can really appreciate the power of that hammer. Ronnie and Bobbi Weatherman joined us and helped set-up everything under the tents while Shannon Holtz and Cass Vickers set-up the practice range. Before I knew it everyone was back from setting the fun range and started on setting up the coon shoot and novelty targets. I could not believe how hard all these folks were working to get the shoot site set up and ready for the masses. 
Friday started much like Thursday, early! We had some new faces pitching in and working on the final details as well as dealing with other duties that arose due to the arrival of shooters and vendors. While Bob Carrier, Bruce & Dottie Hamlin, Ron Weatherman, Dan Leggett, Wayne Carter, David & Kelly Tetzlaff, Cass Vickers & Rich Nichol were putting the final touches on our shoot preparations, Bobbi Weatherman, Tamie Davern, Shannon Holtz, Liz Wood and Karen Ayles were getting ready to register shooters and handle memberships. They, along with Wendy Giles, Sandy Lewis & Dawn Nichol handled all the shoot registrations, score posting and grouping all weekend long. And they did a fine job of it too. While all this was happening we started the Fun range. Bob Ripple, Cass Vickers and Bob Carrier took turns Friday handling the crowd at the fun range. This worked out well. I would give one of them a radio, after a couple of hours they would ask for a relief. All I had to do was ask the next person to volunteer, if they would mind doing that. The radio gets passed on and next time it is someone else's turn. This is a good way to use volunteers without overworking them and allow everyone time to enjoy the shoot. I will attempt to use this method from now on. The coon shoot started at dark Friday evening and we had a big crowd head out to shoot the little green lights. We had some awesome scores on the coon shoot range this year. John Hood shot a 90! I guess some folks can shoot under any conditions. I went out towards the end with a couple of friends and had a good time. READ that as shot poorly! Oh well, I never have been one for shooting in the dark.

Saturday morning was quick in coming, matter of fact the whole weekend seemed to pass very quickly. We did our usual gathering and safety briefing and after a prayer by Darrell Morgan, we headed for the ranges. I was lucky?? enough to shoot the Appalachee Trail first. I was extremely impressed with the fine job the range crew did in setting up those targets. The course had just enough of a challenge to keep you working while being fair distances for our newer members. I thoroughly enjoyed being able to spend the day shooting with some friends, old and new. Even with the ranges full of people things moved along at a good pace. I was concerned that we would get backlogged with 10 people to a target but it didn't happen. At least not on our part of the range. We did seem to be packed in a little tight as far as the campground went. As I looked over the camping and parking situation, I just couldn't imagine adding anymore people to that shoot site. I think 400 is going to be our limit for the competition ranges. We get plenty of other folks that show up to see the vendors or shoot the fun ranges and that just about fills us up. After lunch, it was back out to the ranges. This time to shoot the Timucua Trail. I started this course with the feeling it would be a much easier round. I was doing good too until I got to the running Coyote. It was moving at such a slow pace compared to the Javalina on the other range that I guess I just got over confident. I flat missed him. Funny how it's the ones you think are easy that get you. There were a lot of people helping Saturday, from manning the novelties to bagging trash. The folks that helped Saturday are Wayne Carter, Parnell Oliver, Jeff Allen, Jim Zetwick, Bobbi Weatherman, Crystal Merrill, Darrell Morgan, Bob Carrier, Rich Nichol, Dawn Nichol, Karen Ayles, Sam Hunter, & Paul Siron. Tamie Davern, Shannon Holtz, Wendy Giles, Liz Wood, Rich Nichol & Van Keebler stayed until late Saturday night regrouping our shooters for Sunday's competition. That’s a tough job requiring some concentration from already weary and overworked minds. Jack Keener hosted the Trade Blanket Saturday evening for the adults (Sam Hunter had the bug) and Rich Nichol handled the trade blanket for the kids. I heard Rich got some good deals too!  The Halls (J&B Traders) brought plenty of fixings for Saturday's evening meal but apparently not everyone that had checked the registration paperwork for that meal stayed. Needless to say, they had plenty of meat left over. It made some tasty ham sandwiches though, and we ate plenty on Sunday. I am glad to report that the Halls recouped their money from selling the ham sandwiches.
Aahh. Sunday morning. I have mixed feelings about the Sundays during our shoots. Part of me feels regret that the event is almost over. The rest of me is happy because I am usually very tired by Sunday. We started the day with a light rain. It passed quickly though and for the rest of the day it was nothing but sunshine. We had our morning briefing again and this day Vice President Rich Nichol led us in prayer before we headed to the targets. I stressed at both our morning briefings and our award ceremony the need for everyone to do their part in keeping our shoot site clean and helping in picking up trash and using cigarette butt cans. I have got to say THANK YOU ALL! This was the cleanest I can remember seeing the shoot site after everything is taken down. We walked the entire area after the events on Sunday and again on Monday and it was clean. Great job folks! I would like to take this time to thank our vendors and other generator users for complying with the 8pm shut off time so well at this shoot. I did not receive a single complaint. And everynight at 8pm I could not hear a single generator running. Thanks! After the competition rounds Sunday we started sorting scores for the awards ceremony. Tom Holtz and Martha Varney handled some of the shoot-offs between competitors and Shannon Holtz logged all the winners and important events for me so I would be prepared to handle the awards. Jim Zetwick was kind enough to take photographs of our winners and events during the weekend. Dan McMahon spent the weekend here with us again enjoying the nice weather and running the McMahon Eagle Eye Qualifier. Dan Raised $296.00 for the Wildlife Legislative Fund of America at our shoot. Ron Weatherman was the finalist in that competition winning a McKenzie 3-D deer and the chance to go to Pennsylvania later this year for the big shoot out. Wayne Carter was blessed with the formidable task of choosing this years Keebler / Merritt Award winner. Wayne choose Rick Connell. Rick has done much for this organization for a long time. He has been instrumental in the production of the Stickbow News. He donates his time to print and mail all issues. He also serves as a Director for the TBOF representing our members in the Panhandle area. He also is always there when help is needed and donates much of his personal time towards making this club great. Congratulations Rick! The Trophy Plaque Awards went to Dan Ellis for 1st, Rich Nichol 2nd, David Semones 3rd, & Mike Zinkham with 4th. The Manley Knife was won by Rich Nichol, Rich was very pleased because like many others he has wanted to win a Manley Knife for a long time. The Archery Outfitters hog hunt donated by Nickie Roth went to Marty Lubrusciano. Marty had apparently made a bow for TBOF member Miriam Bennett and would not accept payment for the bow. I do not know the whole tale except that Miriam donated $300.00 in Marty's name to our archery program at Boggy Creek and R.O.C.K. Camp. Thank you to Marty and Miriam, the money will be put to good use for those kids. Bill Collins won a bow donated by Wilkinson Youth Bows, the Bear Kodiak Magnum signed by Charlie Kroll was taken home by one very happy Bob Ripple. Manny Molinas won the Art Young Lion Kill photograph donated by Charlie Kroll. Gordy Mickens from Selway Archery donated two fine bow quivers along with many other items and one of the lucky quiver winners was Bob Skove. Michael Georgovich won the Jim-Bo Longbow donated by Charles Willeford. Jim Zetwick won a couple of nice items including a book signed by Charlie Kroll and a back quiver donated by Sam Hunter. David Bakehorn won a nice Walrus Ivory knife donated by John Bradley. Rich Nichol donated a nice longbow to the raffle that was won by Zane Caudill and then Rich turned around and won a Ferguson longbow donated by Bruce and Dottie Hamlin. Martha Varney won the McKenzie deer target donated by Jim Zetwick. Johnny Smith donated a nice leather backquiver and Kenny Hilt took that home. We really ended up with a lot of great items for our raffle. Especially considering that we started with basically nothing. I could not believe the great things our members brought to the raffle table. Tamie Davern brought multiple items with her and so did Jim Zetwick and many other members. William Fine backed his truck up to the tent and unloaded a bunch of great gear that he had purchased specifically for our raffle. He brought a cooker, two camp stoves, two camp heaters, a canteen, a thermos and a Coleman air mattress. Thanks for helping us Billy; donations like yours and those of our other dedicated members really made our raffle a good one. Thanks to everyone that brought items to our raffle table and to the folks that purchased all those tickets. Our shoot and our organization is successful because of the collective efforts of each and every member of the Traditional Bowhunters Of Florida.

As I started for home on Monday, my mind was awash with the events of the weekend. All of the new folks I met, some I had talked with on the phone before the shoot, some by E-mail, and some for the first time at our shoot. I thought of the TBOF members that worked side by side with me all weekend for no reason other than to make this shoot successful. They don't get paid, they don't have a position within the club, they just wanted to make this shoot fun and enjoyable for everyone else. I drove home full of good feelings for all our special members. I know I cannot repay the debt I owe to all our volunteers. I hope they know how much I appreciate their help. I also truly appreciate the support and encouragement I receive from our membership. At times, this seems an awesome task for me, but everyone really makes me feel comfortable and right at home.  The "high" I get from our events is amazing. As I get closer to home and my mind starts to think about my job and other responsibilities, I can slowly feel the shift in spirit. I think I could just stay at our shoots, that say's a bunch for the kind of folks that attend. Thanks for making this shoot a good one for me too!