Little powerhouse on the prairie

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This article was published 29/08/2022 (1493 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

April Willis mulled the idea of quitting archery altogether nine years ago. This week, she’ll take aim at the podium on the world stage.

Willis, 34, was raised in a home of hunters. Her father, a sponsored bowman in his mid-30s, introduced Willis to the sport when she was five years old and brought the intrigued young archer along to his competitions.

Willis took those learned skills into her teenage years, eventually competing in the 2004 Manitoba Games. But her favourite hobby took a back seat when she reached university.

It wasn’t until 2010, when she moved to Brandon and started dating a man who had also grown up around archery, that she was reunited with the sport and began competing in high-level competition as an adult.

The couple broke up in 2013, however, derailing Willis’ will to continue shooting competitively. She turned to her dad for support.

“He was a very, very important part of me continuing,” said Willis, who shoots out of the Yellowhead Bowhunters Archery Club in Neepawa. “When we were no longer together, it was really hard for me because I saw him every weekend at a tournament. It was getting harder and harder and I was at the point where I didn’t want to participate anymore. My dad just kind of kept pushing me and we did, we just kind of worked through it.”

“I think if he would have just let me quit then I wouldn’t be where I am today.”

That place is at the top of archery in Manitoba and among the best in the country.

Willis’ perseverance will officially pay off on Thursday when she flies to Terni, Italy to represent Canada in the 2022 Rinehart World Archery 3D championships, starting Sept. 4.

Willis, along with 17 other archers will don the Red and White for one week while competing across four categories: compound, barebow, longbow and instinctive bow.

Shooters will aim at three-dimensional targets that look like animals as small as gophers and as thin as snakes, to as big as bears.

“I’m definitely a bit nervous,” she said Monday. “I don’t really enjoy flying very much. So flying to a whole ‘nother country, across an ocean, with all of my gear and just making sure I have everything and that it’s in working condition, makes me a little bit nervous. But I’m really excited.”

Competing on the world stage wasn’t on Willis’ radar until 2019, following the outdoor national championships in Prince Albert, Sask. At the time, she hadn’t declared her intent to try out for Team Canada. So as soon as the tournament ended, she went home and reconfigured her training setup to prepare for her next shot at the world stage.

“Now that I made it, it’s a little bit surreal,” said Willis, whose backyard now features eight rinehart targets that she practices on each day. “You realize that you’ve made this team but yet you don’t. It hasn’t fully set in yet, and I think when we get on that plane on Thursday, it’ll really be like, ‘holy, man, we’re actually going,’” she said.

Typically settled in one indoor and one outdoor competition each year, requiring those interested in the national team to shoot a predetermined average across the competitions, this year’s team was decided at a singular trial event in June at Lac la Biche in Alberta.

Willis shot 433 in her first round (9.02 avg.) and 409 (8.5 avg.) in her second round to qualify for the squad.

Willis didn’t drive out alone, though. She was joined by fellow Neepawa resident Brad Hackewich.

But unlike Willis, who made the national team comfortably, Hackewich, who celebrated his 43rd birthday on Sunday, didn’t have quite the same experience.

“It’s surreal, to be honest. I’m leaving Thursday and it’s starting to really hit home that I’m going. I’m super excited to go at the same time.” – Brad Hackewich

Ahead of the one-day trial, Hackewich was working at his home shop when the electric motor fell off his air compressor, mashing his toe. It soon became infected so he had to cut ties with his toe to avoid losing his entire foot. He was medically cleared the day before the national competition, against his doctor’s wishes.

Hackewich gutted his way to a 70 per cent shooting average, good for third place and a spot on the flight to Italy this week.

“I gimped it anyways. My shooting and even just my walking was bad so I just scratched my way into third place,” he said. “It’s surreal, to be honest. I’m leaving Thursday and it’s starting to really hit home that I’m going. I’m super excited to go at the same time.”

Hackewich, also a member at the Yellowhead Bowhunters Archery Club, has competed in competitive archery for six years.

Like Willis, he started shooting at a young age and eventually fell off when he attended university. That was until he separated his shoulder playing hockey just days before his wedding.

With hockey on the back burner, he wanted to find something to strengthen his shoulder throughout the winter.

“I thought shooting a bow would be a lot more fun than going to the gym,” he said.

Despite being one of the best archers in the country, even without a toe, Hackewich admits he doesn’t think he’s ready to contend at the highest level yet but is focused on taking in the opportunity while leaning on Willis for support this week.

“I think this year will be more of an acclimation year, you know? Go there, see the sights, and be involved with the level of competition,” he said.

“It’s truly amazing that we’re the only people from Manitoba to make the team and the fact that we’re from the same 30-person club is pretty hard to believe. Just the comfort level of having somebody you can rely on, right? Just makes it easier.”

Like her provincial running-mate, Willis is reserving expectations at her first world competition.

“The European archers, some of them are paid to shoot. Like, it’s their job,” she said. “So, everybody’s (saying) ‘bring back a gold (medal)’ and I’m like ‘you know what? This round I’m really just going to learn, better myself and get a really good feel for this experience.’”

The Rinehart World Archery 3D championships will run from Sept. 4-10.

jfreysam@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @jfreysam