Summerville Takes IBO World Championship

By Bob Peck, ArcheryWorld.com Team Shooter

Stephen Summerville's victory in this year's IBO Hunter Class Championship is more than an outstanding victory; it is truly a love story on several different levels. Before you macho men tune out, put down that beer and read on, you'll understand.

As you all can probably guess, to become a champion at this level of archery competition requires more than just dedication and talent, it requires a love of the sport. Traveling on the road for hours, sacrificing business dollars at home, investing in equipment, footing the bill for everything from gasoline to food means you gotta love it. If you don't, it won't be long before you burn out, go broke and head back home for the treestand.

Summerville is the kind of guy who never wanted or asked the manufacturers for anything. Besides an "off the shelf " stock MQ 1 donated by Mathews, Steve essentially has done it alone. Well not quite. Rhonda Summerville, Steve's wife for 20+ years is not only extremely supportive, she competes with her husband. Rhonda has been learning the craft on a Bear Archery rig and has been on tour competing alongside Steve for years. As you all know, new blood entering our sport is a welcome sign and with a tutor like Steve, it won't be long before ArcheryWorld.com features Rhonda.

At 45, Steve is especially proud of his achievements. " I routinely have competed against 20 something's with excellent form and concentration. They say muscle mass decreases over time and while I feel it at times especially after a long road trip to the event, I truly believe experience counts for something." That would be 10 years of experience for those of you wondering. It all started a s a kid sneaking off to the barn to plunk arrows into hay bales with a recurve. Over the years this casual entry into the sport quickly turned into a hunting passion. Steve says "If I go into the woods without my calls I get bored fast. Some guys can just sit there and wait. I've gotta be doing something to call'em in. I hear a lot every year just from listening and calling." Steve doesn't have to go far. All he's got to do is step out his back door. Besides having a 3-D range we'd all dream about, (y'all know how much one of those 3-D whitetail targets cost right?) this guy not only has a herd of them but there's turkey and just about anything else you'd want to practice on. At a recent party to celebrate his IBO victory, Steve invited some of his friends over and before you ask, yes he beat all his friends in a friendly shooting match. Nice guy! Home for Steve is an area of Upstate New York in proximity to Lake Ontario that grows some impressive corn fed whitetails.

For those of you unfamiliar with the brand new Hunter Class at this year's IBO World Championship, there are several important distinctions. The MBR (male bowhunter release) is the most popular because while there are restrictions, most competitors affectionately call this the "Anything Goes" class because of the wide range of equipment and set-ups. Hunter Class is a maximum 35-yard shot, smaller 3-D targets, 4" vanes and no more than 4 pins in the sighting mechanism. For a detailed listing of all classifications, regulations and past IBO champions please visit http://www.ibo.com

To give you an idea of how intense the competition was this year at Snowshoe Mountain in West Virginia, Summerville managed a one-point deficit after two days with a score of 389 out of a possible 400. There were 20 targets on each of the first two days, the third day there were 10 targets. As Summerville noted "Going into the last day you basically had to be positioned well. Because of the new format, the last day doesn't give you much of a chance to catch up." The pressure was on and Steve knew he had to get it right. I asked him what was going through his mind on this last day. He looked at his wife Rhonda and in unison they both smiled "I was thinking about what I always think about. One target at a time, concentration and follow through."

With only 1 point between Summerville and the leader this sunny day would be quite a test. Steve says the host facility at Snowshoe Mountain did a great job preparing the tournament course but recently cut sighting paths through the wooded trails meant ankle deep mud from recent heavy rains. After 10 years of competitive shooting and several wins at Triple Crown events, at the end of the day Steve Summerville finally placed, literally and figuratively, on top of the mountain! While nearly always being ranked in the Top 50 and having competed in 3 previous IBO World Championships, nothing was as sweet as being number 1! The top four finalists in the Hunter Class were separated by one point between each of them.

Archeryworld.com would like to congratulate Steve Summerville on his victory. We're proud to say he lives close enough to Archeryworld.com that we're thinking of asking for private lessons.

This love story has come to an end for now. Steve asked us to thank his wife and partner Rhonda, Wendall at North Country Archery in Watertown, N.Y. He also wanted AW to point out to the kids, female shooters and others entering the sport that fellow North Country Archery shooter Laurie Curtis "stuck with it" to beat Mathews Sr., Staff Shooter George Dickinson at this years Triple Crown.

What are you waiting for, pick up that bow!