Neuqua grad places fifth in nation for archery Olympic trials

When Stephanie Miller's parents bought her a bow and took her to an archery range at the age of 7, she was less than enthusiastic.

That is, until they gave the bow to her younger brother.

"I was not going to have that," Stephanie said. "So I started shooting and have been at it ever since."

Now 16 years later, the Naperville woman has traveled the world for her sport. She also narrowly missed qualifying for the Beijing Olympics.

Archery is in Stephanie's genes. Her parents, Kathy and Mark, are longtime archers themselves. Kathy runs the Chicagoland Junior Olympic Archery Development program, and Mark is part of an international rules committee as well as former president of the National Archery Association. Both will be in Beijing next month to watch the Olympics.

They decided to get their children - Stephanie and Jonathan - in on the action at an early age. Training through the Junior Olympic Archery Development program they have been passionate about it ever since.

Stephanie is now one of the top recurve archers in the country. Her resume includes a long list of awards, her favorite of which are her individual bronze and team gold medals in the 2003 Pan American Games. She has also been on nine international teams including the World University Archery Championships Team in Taiwan earlier this month. France, Spain, Italy, Turkey, Brazil and the Dominican Republic are stamped in her passport as well.

Ronald McCormick, who has coached Stephanie since 2001, said her "dedication and drive, her passion for the sport," have been the keys to her success.

"The thing about Stephanie that impressed me is her ability to focus during training sessions and during competition," he said. "I never have an issue of having to get her focused on what we're working on."

While Stephanie enjoys watching her hard work pay off, she says the best part of the sport is the friends she's made.

"The relationships I've built with people all over the country and all over the world," she said. "I would never have met these people if not for archery. I only see them a couple times a year but I count them among my best friends."

But she also never lost sight of her schoolwork. After graduating from Neuqua Valley High School in 2003 - in the same class as Olympic figure skater Evan Lysacek - she decided not to train for the 2004 Olympics but instead, attend Columbia University where she could both study and compete in collegiate archery. It's a move even her coach supported.

"Academics is very important to me so I tried to balance it as much as I could," she said.

The balancing act was a success. Stephanie won multiple All-American honors in archery and also graduated in 2007 with a degree in American studies.

After college, archery took center stage. Stephanie started training for the Olympics full time, shooting about seven hours a day, six days a week.

"It was nerve-racking for me because I had never been focused (only) on archery," Stephanie said. "I always had school to balance it out so I think in the beginning it was more difficult to make that adjustment to 100 percent archery all the time. But as the trials came, I became more and more focused, and I think it really helped."

The Olympic trials consisted of three tournaments - Georgia in September, California in April and Arizona in May.

When the dust settled, she finished fifth but only the top two women will be heading to Beijing; the U.S. didn't qualify to send a full three-person team.

With the Olympics so close to her grasp, Stephanie is considering training for the games again in the future and continues to compete in the meantime. Next up is a national competition in Colorado Springs, Co. that begins later this week.

When she's not training or competing, she's doing what most 23-year-olds do after graduating from college - searching for a job. She hopes to pursue a career in sports management.

Stephanie's mom says archery is a character-builder, teaching the kids lessons about dedication and hard work. Brother Jonathan has a handful of awards of his own and is now shooting at Purdue University, where he reinstated an archery club.

"I've been very proud of both of our kids," Kathy said. "When we first started this we had no idea it would come to this at all. We just wanted it to be a recreational sport to start with."

The Millers say the sport needs more young talent and they hope to see it grow in popularity in the U.S.

Those ages 6 to 18 interested in giving archery a shot can visit www.chicagolandjoad.org or call (630) 369-9459.