Bow, Arrow Keep Teacher on Target

What started out as family outings has turned Becky Adams into one of the top female archers around.

“My family (husband Terry and two sons) gave me a bow on a Mother’s Day and that started it,” said the Santa Ana schoolteacher, who contends she wasn’t exactly thrilled with the gift--at the time.

An admitted “wimp” about the prospect of “walking up and down hills to shoot arrows,” she nevertheless joined in.

But it came to mind, she said, that it was as an opportunity to “separate myself from noise and traffic” when the family took trips to shoot arrows in the great outdoors.

As it came to be, traveling to the various matches became her joy, no doubt partly because she was getting good and was whipping other female archers in target shooting.

Most trips are far away, since Orange County only has archery ranges in Santa Ana and the El Toro Marine base. Another range, a 50-acre, 56-target site, is at Prado Dam near the border of Orange and San Bernardino counties.

Joe Doddier, president of California Bowmen Hunters, said that ranges have become nearly extinct in Orange County and that archers generally have difficulty finding places to compete or practice.

“The more and more development there is, the less and less places there are to shoot,” said Adams, noting that few residents want an archery range near them. “They think of bow and arrows as weapons.”

But the toxophilite, who shoots almost every weekend, thinks archery is here to stay.

“It’s a skill and part of history,” she said. “There’s something about old skills and crafts. They have been here for so long it’s bound to stay.”

Adams became the state women’s target shooting champ in 1986 and 1987; state indoor champion in 1987 and 1989, and state field champion in 1987 and 1988.

She reluctantly admits “I think I’m pretty good in target archery” and notes that “as I see more improvement in myself, the more enthusiastic I get shooting arrows.”

And it doesn’t hurt to be recognized at bow-and-arrow gatherings, said Adams, who only shoots targets. While she is not a hunter, “I’m not against hunting (with bow and arrows).”

“When people start to know your name and ask you questions, it’s a whole different aspect,” she said. “Because you’re recognized it makes you want to get better. It just becomes something you want to do.”

At the beginning, Adams just wanted to spend time with the family, “but I found that as I got better I enjoyed getting better and became more interested in archery.”

Though she has become a top shooter in the female ranks, her husband, a glass design engineer, “is far and away a better archer” even though they sometimes have close scores against each other.

Adams, who sometimes brings her bows and arrows to Wilson Elementary School, where she is a fourth- and fifth-grade teacher, said she expects to go on shooting. “Even though you get better, nobody ever thinks they have done as well as they might.”