SoCal Showdown 2019
- emmybreitkopf
- Jun 29, 2019
- 5 min read
Updated: Jul 8, 2019
DAY 1
The SoCal team arrived in San Diego on June 20th after a long day at the airport with a delayed flight and connection in San Fransisco. Before even arriving at the hotel the team was already in full bonding mode after multiple intense games of UNO, most of which Ben Lee took the crown. However, the objective of the game was to not be the biggest loser. It was in these nail biting moments where cards were slammed, and UNO was screamed.
Once the team arrived at the hotel and got settled into their rooms they met in the breakfast room. The picture on the right, you can see a smiling Sarah-Grace as lunches were made in preparation for practice the following day. The food was kindly picked up by our team managers Manisha Solomon and Stephen Chan (who are seen in the right of the photo). They also went out and picked up some take out food for the athletes to eat having arrived late after the flights in the hotel.
DAY 2 (OFFICIAL PRACTICE)
Practice day was bright and early for the men, who were accompanied by their eager photographer, Emily Breitkopf, to snap some shots of them prepping for qualifications.
The women followed afterwards with their practice in the afternoon:
Several of our archers were excited to see the American archer, Brady Ellison, who is currently ranked number one in the world. It wasn't until the team was packed up and ready to go that we convinced a fangirling Sarah-Grace (to the left of Ellison) to approach him for a photo. Eventually, as a team, we introduced ourselves to Ellison who was super awesome and posed for a photo.
The team finished the day heading off to BJ's Restaurant where Ben Lee got to celebrate his 17th birthday with his own pookie (pie-cookie). After the food was devoured and the team meeting for the next day was held, the athletes headed back to their rooms to prepare themselves for qualifications which were being held the following day.
DAY 3 (QUALIFICATIONS)
Qualification day, the women got to sleep in while the men were up and ready to go for an 8:00 start on the field. The women waited in the hotel watching and cheering the men on via between ends. Devaang Gupta (right), crept his way into second place with a 633, and Julian Murphy (left), shot a personal best with 595. Benjamen Lee finished in 4th place making an amazing recovery in the middle ends. Finally, Reece Wilson-Poyton with an 11th place finish and Andrew Waslen, 27th.
The women arrived on the field in the afternoon as the weather was beginning to heat up and the wind was starting to pick up a lot. The women ended up finishing with Emily Breitkopf in 25th, Sarah-Grace 33rd, Sara Teskey 42nd, Natalee Chan 36th, Brianna DeZeeuw in 59th and Stephanie Barrett finished in 10th with a 607.
The women then hurried back to the hotel to freshen up and head out for dinner to a Mexican restaurant where Emily Breitkopf would try authentic Mexican food for the first time; she enjoyed it very much! At this restaurant, we also celebrated Brianna DeZeeuw's birthday. She had just turned 17 the previous week.
DAY 4 (ELIMINATIONS)
The last day of shooting, everyone was up early to head to the field for match play. The men started shooting their first round of matches. However, Reece Wilson-Poyton, Devaang Gupta, and Julian Murphy all had byes. Ben Lee and Andrew Waslen shot and both won their first matches. Shortly after, the women stepped up with the only bye being Stephanie Barrett. Emily Breitkopf clutched her match 6-0 and Sarah-Grace winning 6-2. Natalee Chan, Brianna DeZeeuw, and Sara Teskey lost their matches after putting up an exceptional fight.
All archers heading into the 1/16th got ready for their matches. The three that would make it through the round would be Devaang Gupta with a 6-0 win, Julian Murphy and Stephanie Barrett. Unfortunate luck forced Devaang and Julian to shoot against each other in the 1/8th round. Emily Breitkopf behind the scope for Julian and Brianna DeZeeuw for Devaang. After a well fought match, Julian Murphy ended up winning 7-3. Joan McDonald worked with Stephanie (in the photo); using this opportunity to help her prepare for her matches for the following week in Berlin. Stephanie Barrett won 6-0.
Excited to have two archers shooting in the quarter finals, the team split up to cheer on both the athlete's during their matches. The American's put down some great sets, knocking Julian out with a close 6-4 match, and Stephanie losing to the young talent, Casey Kaufhold. Exhausted but happy with their performances, the archers packed up and headed to Blaze Pizza for lunch.
After lunch, the team split up again with a few of the athletes heading to tour the Olympic Training Centre while the others headed back to the hotel to rest. Each archer had a personal meeting with coach Joan McDonald (pictured on right) to debrief our performances. After that, a group meeting was held to go over the plans for the next day. The team would finally get to tour the San Diego area! Athletes that were too tired or full to eat stayed behind while the others headed across the street to Denny's for dinner. This is where Emily managed to spill an entire cup of ice water on Natalee! Fortunately, the kind waiter made a good laugh out of it and returned with a kid's cup to avoid any other disasters. Heading back to their rooms, the archers hung out for a bit before heading to bed.
DAY 5 (SIGHT SEEING AND DEPARTURE)
At the crack of dawn, everyone packed the vans and left the hotel. The athletes were on route to Mount Soledad National Veterans Memorial that looked out to all of San Diego. This spot was found by Ben Lee during his research of things to do in the area. The view was beautiful and was a perfect place for Emily to put her camera to work.
From there, the team took off to go and visit the USS Midway Museum. Many of the athletes and coach Joan McDonald were eagerly waiting to visit.
After the tour of the museum and a highly requested stop for lunch at In-N-Out, the athletes piled into the rental vans for the last time to head to the airport. They would soon get on a late flight that went to San Francisco, where they would switch planes to return home. 7 hours later, the athletes touched down the next morning around 8 o'clock, collected their baggage and parted ways; bringing this journey to a close.
But the team is not done yet. JOADs in North Carolina is just around the corner. They come home for two weeks of training before they leave again; this time with an even bigger team. Joining them will be: 12 year-old Audrey Khan, Katie Rockburn, and Quebecers Marie-Eve Gelinas, and Daynius Roy. Make sure to stayed tuned to receive updates on the athletes of the Development and Identification group throughout the outdoor season, and don't forget to check Archery Canada for all the updates on the National team.
All photos were taken by Emily Breitkopf with a Canon EOS 7D camera unless otherwise specified. You can find all archers instagrams in the contacts section of this website. Please seek permission from the photographer before using their photos on any media platform.
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