Written By Ryan Manesh

Archery is a sport that requires dedication, skill, patience and consistent effort. Sophomore Thomas Rowe has been shooting for seven years and loves everything about the sport. Rowe has spent a lot of time on archery fields mastering his technique.

Rowe started archery in elementary school. “I have done archery for about seven years,” he said. “Every year since I was 8 years old during the summer, I have done archery and I still love it.”

Rowe’s main inspiration was the best-selling book series “The Hunger Games” by Suzanne Collins. “Katniss Everdeen was my main girl,” he said. “Just reading about her shooting those arrows was truly inspirational and really drove me to try out the sport.”

The young bowman enrolls in a yearly archery summer camp at Stanford. “It’s really fun and it really helped me learn and achieve my dreams in following Katniss’ footsteps,” he said.

   It has not been all easy for Rowe, however. He has had some big hurdles to overcome and some pretty gruesome injuries to show for it. When Rowe was at his camp one year, he had an unfortunate accident. “I once shot myself in the foot. It was kind of painful,” he said. “I was just trying to cock the string back, but for some reason, I looked down and just released the arrow straight into my foot.” However, Rowe was able to overcome these obstacles and persevere.

   Rowe feels the most fulfilled when he is able to achieves a long term personal goal. The satisfaction of hitting the center of the target never fails to disappoint. “When you just sink that bullseye from 30 meters out, it’s great, it’s truly amazing to accomplish that,” he said.