2005 TSAA State Field Championship
Eagle Lake, Texas

The state field was held on the Blaschke exotic deer ranch for the fourth consecutive year with 45 participants and was enjoyed by all, especially the youth. The weather was absolutely beautiful and windy as usual. John Blaschke and I were privileged once again to host this event to the enjoyment of everyone and we had a blast putting it together and tired bones to prove it. A record number of snakes (about a dozen) were observed. Two water moccasins were claimed by very accurate archers. Yours truly chased a chicken snake up a bush and you can see that photo in the gallery. Alligators were spotted before and during the tournament and one was active in a water hole that archers actually shot over, thank goodness no one lost an arrow in there.

A personal thanks to those who came out before, during and after the tournament to help make the event a success. All of your help was much appreciated as it is a big undertaking and could possibly be the only field event in the country or world where the whole course has to be set up and taken back down again. This is due to the hundreds of exotic deer that inhabit the range. Deer enjoy rubbing their antlers on the archery stands and knocking them over. Over the course of two weeks prior to the event, seven stands had to be re-set and four completely rebuilt. One stand was knocked completely off the hill landing on the top of a thorn tree. But the effort is worth it as long as everyone has fun.

A special thanks to Tom Barker for recruiting and bringing about 20 archers from the Victoria area. As a JOAD coach, the most common feedback he received from his archers when asked how they were shooting was, “I don’t know, but I sure am having fun.” For the South Texas Archery contingent, this was a two-day party that was occasionally interrupted by shooting arrows. Tom adds his personal thanks for all the adults that took some time to help a kid with their form or who patiently helped them pull arrows or work their score sheet.

See ya’ll again next year. Rick Stonebraker
John and Rick

John Blashke adds:
A special thanks to everybody for attending and supporting this event. I look forward to state field all year long. Yes it is true, there is an amazing amount of work and effort that goes into setting up this tournament, My hats off to all my friends who were stomping around in the bull nettles and burning grass and poison ivy who toughed it out with me to make the tournament a success. A very-very special thanks to all of those who were in attendance, the smiles and enjoyment I saw from all the tired and wore out souls from slipping and sliding up and down all those hills, the braving of snake and alligator infested waters, brings tears to my eyes that the alligators didn’t snatch up an archer. Several arrows were lost but we never lost an archer. Thanks everybody for coming out, it made every minute worth while.
John Blaschke

NOTE: Due to the challenging nature of the Blaschke Deer Farm course, Rick has
included a # to show course records for the Seniors and Masters only. All
the Junior/Cadet/Cub/Bowman state records have been broken on the Deer Farm
course as of 2002. Several Senior and Master records were set on flat field
courses that probably will not get broken at the deer ranch but we would
like to recognize those archers who shot exceptionally well. See also the
state field records. Rick Stonebraker