By Drew Terhall

Dailyadvocate.com

NEW MADISON — Tri-Village senior Stephen Derksen will continue his academic and archery career at the University of Rio Grande.

Derksen said he originally didn’t plan on going to college, but he knew he wanted to continue shooting archery if he did go to college. When this offer presented itself, Derksen couldn’t pass it up.

“I never really planned on going to college until I was given the opportunity. I always told my parents if I ever was to go, I would want to shoot collegiate archery. Lucky enough two days later after our State tournament was up and I placed seventh in state for the boys, I got an email offering me a scholarship. The rest is history,” Derksen said.

Derksen is the first member of the Tri-Village archery program to sign on to continue their archery career. Tri-Village archery head coach John Siegrist said this is a great ending to Derksen’s Tri-Village career.

“It’s the first signing we have. Hopefully we have more to come. Stephen has been doing very well this year. He’s been shooting with us since he’s been in fifth grade. His career at Tri-Village has been a good one,” Siegrist said.

Rio Grande archery head coach Jonathan Clemins said he came across Derksen researching scores and reached out to Tri-Village athletic director Brad Gray first. From there, he talked to Derksen and his family.

Clemins said archery is a sport where if you’re good at one thing, you’re good at many other things as well. He is excited to see what Derksen can do with different equipment.

“He’s going to shoot in the compound fixed pins division. He shoots the Genesis bow extremely well and the Genesis bow is a really cheap, really generic bow. To shoot that bow extremely well, to me, means that when he has nicer equipment in his hands he can do miraculous things with it,” Clemins said. “I’m excited to get him set up with some high quality equipment and see what he does.”

Siegrist believes Derksen will be able to contribute to the team right away. His personality and skills could make him an important member on the Rio Grande team.

“He’s a strong shooter. He likes to keep morale up. To contribute to the team, I think he’ll contribute with any team he shoots with,” Siegrist said.

Gray said he is proud of Stephen for earning this chance to continue his archery career. He also said it’s an exciting day for the program.

Derksen can set the example for the rest of the Tri-Village archery program that they can also move on to the next level.

“If you’re on that squad and you see somebody on the squad that achieves something like this, then it makes it a little bit more realistic. It’s something others can hopefully shoot for and hopefully go achieve it for themselves as well,” Gray said.

Derksen said he is excited to start practicing with his new equipment soon. He’s not going into his first year with high expectations.

He will go in, do the best he can and go from there.

“The first year, the expectations aren’t very high. Just hoping to do the as best as I can. Get through it, we’ll keep moving on and get better,” Stephen said.

While at Rio Grande, Derksen plans to major in business management with a minor in marketing.

Contact Daily Advocate sports editor Drew Terhall at [email protected].