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Mathews pro Christopher Perkins has won The Vegas Shoot, the ASA Known Pro Shooter of the Year crown and the NFAA Marked 3D Championships in Redding, California, among other prestigious archery titles. But his passion for target archery started as a desire to take up bowhunting \u2014 which he still does today.<\/p>\n
Perkins got his first compound bow at age 11, in anticipation of starting to bowhunt at 12. Practicing to become a better bowhunter, Perkins found himself spending a lot of time on the range. With encouragement from others to give it a try, he went to his first tournament at a local club at age 13. At 16, he made his first national\/international team representing his home nation of Canada.<\/p>\n
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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/archery360.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/2-Madison-Cox-University-of-the-Cumberlands.jpg\")
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Madison Cox was a cheerleader through middle school and into high school. She said her father constantly asked her if she would try archery if he bought her a bow. One day, when she was 16, she finally said yes.<\/p>\n
\u201cI set it up probably on a Monday, and we went to an S3DA tournament that weekend,\u201d Cox said. \u201cI definitely lost a few arrows that day, but I also hit my first 12 on a 3D target on the hardest target on the course.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cox continued, \u201cIn the beginning, I never felt ready to compete. I was just kind of thrown into it, and I was like, \u2018I\u2019m really bad at this.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Her archery journey turned around, however, when she went to University of the Cumberlands, where she competed for the team, practiced religiously and started racking up wins. In 2023, Cox landed on two podiums out of the six national ASA tournaments in her first year as a pro competing in the Women\u2019s Known Pro division. She also was part of the three-archer team that won a gold medal for the USA in the Women\u2019s Compound Team event at the first World Cup tournament of 2023 in Turkey.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s still a work in progress,\u201d Cox said. \u201cIt\u2019s something I strive at daily to get better at.\u201d<\/p>\n
Everyone we\u2019ve talked to so far started competing at a relatively young age. That\u2019s not the path taken by PSE pro Sharon Wallace, who has won scores of ASA and IBO tournaments and Shooter of the Year crowns in the Women\u2019s Pro class, as well as winning NFAA Indoor Nationals in 2021.<\/p>\n
Wallace, who said she is \u201cso competitive,\u201d decided to take up tournament archery at local events at age 30.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was practicing a lot and enjoyed it so much \u2026 I just felt it in my heart that I was ready to compete,\u201d Wallace said. \u201cI didn\u2019t expect much at first, but I knew that I would get better and better, as in, I knew if I went ahead and competed, that it would only make me better.\u201d<\/p>\n
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