Ed Vargas:

I was born and raised in Texas in a little border town with Mexico called
Eagle Pass.  I started shooting when I was about five when I got a little
fiberglass bow and suction cup arrows for my birthday.  I've been shooting
ever since.  My goal as a kid was to shoot on an Olympic Archery team.  I
was lucky because my grandparents on my dad's side lived next door to us and
they had a large empty lot behind their house where I could go shoot.  I
spent hours out there shooting every day after school and all summer before
going in to work at my parents' hardware store.

Unfortunately, I never had the opportunity to meet a coach, or to be in a
JOAD, or to even go to a tournament.  I was the only person in that little
town that I ever knew that had an interest in archery.  It's pretty hard to
make an Olympic Archery team without any opportunities.

When I was in college at Texas A&M, I was on the Pistol Team and did well.
I learned that A&M had an Archery Team after I had already used over two
years of my NCAA eligibility on the Pistol Team.  It was too late for me to
try out for the A&M Archery Team so I finished out my competitive
eligibility on the Pistol Team and had a great time doing it.

After college I started shooting my bow again at a bowhunting shop here in
the Humble, TX, area.  I got all kinds of funny looks when I walked in with
a 68" recurve with a 36" stabilizer with a set of 12" v-bars.  "What's that
thing for?  So you can hit the deer with it and stun it before you shoot it.
Ha, ha, ha."  They stopped guffawing when I started beating them during the
leagues.

A couple of years after we moved to Humble I decided that I needed to do
more in archery.  I started competing in tournaments.  I started to train
more.  I got better equipment.  But there was still something missing.

In 1999 I decided to start coaching at the shop I was shooting at.  I got my
Level 1 and got some coaching experience for about a year and I started
buying a lot of equipment.  Then in 2000 I started SureShot Archery JOAD and
I haven't looked back since.  I earned my Level 3 in September of 2004 in
Lake Placid, NY.  I can't wait to get my Level 4.

Now I'm a professional coach.  I have my own school of archery/full service
pro-shop, SureShot Archery, in Humble, TX.  I've worked with over 200 kids
and have loved every minute of it.  The JOAD hovers around 25-30 kids.

My goals have changed since I was kid.  I know that I don't have the time to
train to become an Olympian anymore, so I am determined to become the best
coach that I can be so I can help my kids, all of my students are my kids,
get as far as they can in this sport.  If one of my kids can make an Olympic
Archery team, that would be my ultimate reward.

Edward Vargas
Vargas' SureShot Archery, L.L.C.
Phone 281-540-2265
Fax 281-540-2090
www.SureShotArchery.net

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