COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado - It is USA Archery's honor to recognize member-nominated and voted coaches of the year annually. These coaches stand out among their peers for their significant dedication and efforts to grow the sport and develop athletes. USA Archery is grateful to these coaches for their continued work to promote and improve the sport in their communities and across the nation. We congratulate all nominees and finalists.
A developmental coach of the year is coach of a youth club, school or junior-level coach, or a coach directly responsible for coaching athletes to the junior and/or elite level. This award is based on the accomplishments from the past year. The 2018 Developmental Coaches of the year are Linda Beck and Alexander Kirillov.
Coach Beck is the head coach of the North Central Elite Archers JOAD club and pioneered USA Archery's Compound Junior Dream team and Regional Recurve Junior Dream Team programs. Coach Beck's nominator commented: "Coach Beck expects the best from you. More importantly, she makes you expect the best from yourself. She makes herself available to your schedule and understands the time constraints of an AP High School student� She will not accept less than my best and she won't let me accept anything less than that myself. It is clear that she loves the sport, loves her athletes and improves every last one of them. She is what this award is all about."
Coach Kirillov of Precision Shooters JOAD has taken countless students to the tops of national podiums. Coach Kirillov's nominator shared: "Alexander takes young, aspiring archers and helps turn them into champions. His JOAD club provides a great learning experience for both beginner and experienced archers. His experience and knowledge of the sport is second to none. Coach is always positive and encouraging to his students and anyone that is around him. His professionalism is always on display. He is loved and respected by his students."
A volunteer coach of the year nominee is a coach who does not receive payment in any form for their involvement in coaching. This award is based on the coach's accomplishments over the past year.
The 2018 Female Volunteer Coach of the Year is Coach Sylvia Wall. Coach Wall has trained over five dozen instructors and coaches for the Girl Scouts and has personally introduced nearly 500 young girls to the sport. In her nomination, it was shared that: "Sylvia is very passionate about archery and she provides a positive and sage environment in which girls can succeed and achieve their individual goals. Not only does Coach Sylvia coach the Archery Teams, train volunteers and lead Archery days at camp, she maintains the archery equipment and archery ranges at two camp properties."
Rob Cook of Next Step Archery has been a volunteer coach for over 15 years, working with youth and adult archers in the state of Washington, earning him the 2018 Volunteer Coach of the Year Award. Several heartfelt nominations in support of Coach Cook shared: "I work very hard at archery but coach makes me believe I can be the best at shooting. He coaches the whole team this way and there are a lot of good archers on our team like me. He is a good coach." Another commented: "He is willing to put in as much time as needed for these kids to reach their dreams. Many of them started at a very young age, and have grown into strong, independent archers with his guidance."
USA Archery is proud to congratulate these outstanding coaches. Learn more about the Coach of the Year Awards.
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