Right on target: John Carroll’s Veronica Walker excels in archery

––A Girl Scout camp might have changed Veronica Walker’s life.

When she was 11 years old, Walker, now a 16-year-old John Carroll Catholic High School sophomore, attended a camp and chose archery as one of her activities. After the camp ended, she told her mom she could not wait a whole year to pick up a bow again.

So Walker joined the Hoover Archery Club, which allows anyone 9 years of age and older to join. The club shoots twice a week, which allowed her to learn more about the sport she had fallen in love with.

“I recognized it was a very mental sport,” Walker said.

On the first day of class at the Hoover club, an instructor passed out a pamphlet titled “10 Steps to Success.” 

“I thought it went too slow,” Walker said with a laugh.

Archery helps improve concentration, she said. And while the sport is often competitive, those who compete are also usually very friendly, she said. It is not uncommon for competitors to make sure they have followed one another on social media before leaving a tournament.

“This is my passion in life,” Walker said. “And it’s really amazing to meet people with the same passion I have. It’s wonderful to meet other archers who are as serious as I am.”

When she first started, Walker said she thought she was “decent.” Years later, “decent” would be an understatement.

Walker has competed for the past three years with USA Archery’s Regional Elite Development (RED) Southeast team, and she traveled to Colombia in November 2021 to compete in the World Archery Continental Qualifier Event. She finished 15th in the world in her division, the compound bow. That was after she thought an airline had lost her bow, as it had been scanned in as a firearm and traveled separately.

During her visit to Colombia, she was able to shoot all day and then take walking tours and see the sights and sounds of Medellin at night.

Joining her was her mother, Jennifer, and her coach, Dee Falks, owner of World Class Archery.

“She’s dedicated,” Falks said. “She has a tremendous amount of self-motivation and discipline.”

Falks first encountered Walker at a national tournament in North Carolina, where he encouraged her after a loss. Six months later, the pair ran into each other again, with Falks agreeing to coach Walker.

Walker has also been able to travel to California, where she trained at the national training center in Chula Vista. She has competed in an ice rink, at a gun range and more, she said.

While John Carroll does not have an archery team, the school has been really supportive of Walker, she said. She’s been able to make up work missed due to traveling for tournaments and the school routinely tells of her achievements.

The sport itself is dependent on whistle commands, making it a universal sport, Walker said. When she starts shooting, she sets her stance, makes herself square to the target, loads, focuses on the target and then aims and fires.

Being on the RED team allows Walker to attend camps and shoot alongside the other five women in the compound division.

Walker hopes to compete in this year’s World Archery Youth Championships in Ireland. She also plans on competing in archery in college, she said. While the Olympics do not have compound-bow archery, she is hopeful they add it one day. 

She does have other interests, such as studying veterinary medicine, but she hopes to turn archery into a career, she said.

Falks said Walker is a “super young lady, very coachable” and has a “magnetic personality.”

Shooting in front of a thousand people, sometimes with only one other competitor standing with you, can be nerve-wracking, but Walker has been able to learn how to perform in those moments, Falks said.

Jennifer Walker said it has been “incredible” to see her daughter grow.

“As a parent, you hope your child finds their passion,” Jennifer Walker said. “It’s really exciting to be able to support her dream.”

She has seen her daughter’s confidence level continue to grow with each event.

“Every time she does something, it adds this shell of, ‘Yep, this is what I’m supposed to be doing,’” Jennifer Walker said.