USA Archery Level 2
2023-2024 Social Chair
2021-2024 UCSD Archery Competitive Team Member

Accolades:

2024 SIACC Men’s Barebow Flight Winner

Ian has been an irreplaceable member of Sun God Archery and a beloved part of our club’s family over his years here. He dedicated countless time and effort to support and improve SGA, spearheading and planning events as social chair and helping to build a supportive and engaging club community. Ian was interested in archery from an early age, but it was at an SGA workshop in his first year that he finally was able to try it. Since then, he has devoted 4 years to practicing and improving his shooting.

Ian’s fondest memories of archery revolve around community and comradery, values which he has reflected in his contributions to SGA. During SIACC 2024, he found himself facing a full flight of USC archers. Coincidentally, the men’s barebow team had lost the opportunity to get a higher medal following defeat to USC’s team during team rounds, so he made it his personal mission to crush them in his flight. He had gone through the first three, and on his final opponent he was incredibly nervous. As he continued to beat the USC archers, more and more USC teammates showed up to support their archers. He was honestly scared: no one from UCSD had arrived to rally for him and he felt incredibly alone. He then asked my good friend Isaac to rally others because he was facing such intense pressure and fear facing his match against his final opponent. During the two final rounds, he looked back and saw SGA’s members behind him, rooting for him. He was able to defeat his final opponent, going 4-0 in SIACC. The entire moment solidified that although archery is mostly an individual sport, having team members (and more importantly, friends) at your back is what makes being a club so great. In the tight-knit archery community, these sentiments reflect even in opponents. During one of the SIACC qualifiers in 2022/23, Ian had begun to shoot poorly, and it was beginning to affect him throughout the scoring end. A UCI archer by the name of Patrick helped him calm himself down and manage his shots better for the rest of the qual. The experience made him grateful to have had such nice people in the archery community, even as a direct competitor in the male barebow division.

The values of community in archery motivated Ian, and in turn he motivated and supported us in every way he could, for which we will always be grateful and remember him for. As he moves on to CSU Fullerton for his Masters in Counseling next year, Ian hopes to join their archery team and continue his journey in the sport. We wish him the best of luck in his future endeavors, and hope to see him competing again!