Local Archer, 15, Eyes World Championship In August
With more competition since he started taking part in archery contests four years ago, Fisher Newhall has only gotten better.
Newhall, 15, a rising sophomore at Rockbridge County High School, recently took first overall in the Triple Crown, a series of three national archery competitions, in the Youth Male Release category for 12-14-year-olds. Newhall, who also won the Triple Crown last year by winning all three competitions, took first in the first of the two competitions this year and placed fifth in the third competition. He was also named shooter of the year for his class.
The next big goal for Newhall is to win the International Bowhunting Organization’s World Championship, which will take place Aug. 7-10 in Berkeley Springs, W.Va.
Newhall is also competing in the Beginner Bowhunter Open (BBO) class, mostly with adults. There are a few teenagers, but Newhall is the youngest. His proud father, Tom, said there are also a “handful of grown men who have been in the class for a long time. I’ve enjoyed watching Fisher beat them.”
Tom, an experienced bowhunter, started training Fisher in 2021, when Fisher was 11, following the cancellation of much of the sports year in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The sport was ideal during the time, with plenty of social distancing.
Tom and Fisher eventually connected with Monte Jessee, director of the operations at the former High Country Outfitters store in Lexington, and he gave some pointers. Through competitions, they met Washington and Lee University alumnus Nate Adkins, president of Augusta Archers – the closest archery organization to Rockbridge County – and they’ve practiced with him. Tom said Adkins was “a good friend and mentor to us both.”
Since then, Fisher has gotten better on his own, with some coaching from Tom and guidance from friends who are 18 and have taken up archery. “At this point, we’re pretty much self-coached,” said Tom. “I keep track of all the equipment.”
Tom, who owns Newhall Custom Builders LLC in Rockbridge Baths, said the 18-year-old friends “probably teach him as much as I do, at this point. It’s hard for me to beat him, to be honest.”
In 2021, Fisher won the 2021 Archery Shooters Association (ASA) state championship in the Eagle Class. The next year, he won the youth open male class and also won the indoor state championship that year. At the national level, Fisher placed second in the spring last year and third in the winter.
In ASA competitions this year, Fisher won two national events in the Men’s Open 45 (maximum distance of 45 yards), at Fort Benning, Ga., and at Camp Minden in Louisiana. Next year, because he’s won enough ASA events, he’ll shoot in the semi-pro class and will be one of the youngest members. The only level up from semi-pro is the pro class.
Fisher is shooting for Dalton Archery, which is based in Hale, Mich., and has won almost $5,000 in competitions this year.
Compared to when he first started competing, Fisher said, “I’m definitely practicing more now. I have to practice a lot more to win than I used to because the competition is a lot harder.”
After Fisher placed fifth at a competition held July 10-13, in Nelsonville, Ohio, Tom said, “With it being unknown yardage, it really some days just comes down to who is seeing the distance better than the other guy. Making the shot is relatively easy sometimes compared to figuring out how far the target is.”
Fisher said the biggest challenge of archery is “being consistent.”
Tom said having “a good mental game” is important also. “It’s a lot like golf … similar sort of self-pursuit and repetition.”
Fisher has gotten support from both of his parents. His mother, Amy, is a teacher at Blue Ridge Outdoor School and keeps track of how he does. Tom has traveled with Fisher to his competitions this year, watching him in Pennsylvania, Louisiana, Ohio, Alabama and Illinois.
In Nelsonville, Tom did some of his own shooting and, in between practicing, got to watch Fisher on 20 of 40 targets.
Through these competitions, Tom and Fisher have gotten to know a lot of interesting people. “One of the neatest things about this is the people that play are absolutely some of the most honest and honorable people I’ve been around,” said Tom.
Outside of archery, Fisher enjoys fishing and playing basketball, and he was a member of RC’s junior varsity boys basketball team as a freshman over last winter. Fisher’s older sister, Julia, is also an athlete. Julia, who graduated in May, was the No. 2 girls tennis player for RC this past spring. She’ll attend Hollins University in the fall.
While he still has three more years of high school, competing in archery in college is a possibility for Fisher, as there are colleges that have 3D archery teams.
The sport of archery is on the rise, and the United States has some of the toughest competition for one male and one female spot on the U.S. Olympic Team in the Summer Olympics to be held in Los Angeles in 2028. “We’ve got a lot of good shooters,” said Tom.
Fisher’s next big competition will be The Classic, an ASA competition which will be held from July 31 to Aug. 3 in St. Bernard Abby, Ala.
Those interested in keeping up with Fisher’s competition can follow him on Instagram at fisher_newhall_archery.
