Hawkeye
SPORTS
OCTOBER 2021 | 15
FEATURE
STUDENT BY DAY, CHAMPION ARCHER BY NIGHT By Nico Francois CO-EDIOTR-IN-CHIEF
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f it weren’t for her father’s overwhelming sense of boredom and the presence of her newborn baby sister, sophomore Gabrielle Sasai may have never picked up archery, the sport that has led her to make her mark on the state, the nation and the world. Sasai’s archery journey began at the young age of six, with her father’s interest in taking archery courses to spend time away from her infant sister. While Sasai was reluctant at first to join her father in the sport, claiming that archery was a “boy’s sport,” one particular experience at the shooting range was enough to change her mind. “All of a sudden this group of immaculate teenage girls in blue shirts walked in, and I was like, woah, I guess I am intrigued,” Sasai said. Sasai’s encounter with women in archery ignited a passion in her that never dwindled, despite the common misconceptions about being a talented young athlete in the sport. “People say a lot, ‘You’re so good for your age.’ I think that is not what we should be saying,” Sasai said. “What you should be saying is, ‘You are good.’ You are not good for your age, you are just a good athlete.” Sasai may detest statements that correlate age with athletic skill, but on top of being a young athlete in archery, she is also a female in a predominantly male sport, which has led to a variety of misunderstandings and stereotypes. “A misconception about women in sports is that we need to be handicapped,” Sasai said. “I think the conception that the sport needs to be slightly modified for us is not the case. I think that we could compete with men in an open category and that could honestly benefit the sport in a sense because it would greatly broaden the competition field.” Despite the frequent misconceptions about women in sports, archery included, Sasai praises archery for being one of the sports that attempts to put men and women on a more equal playing field. This is often achieved through mixed team rounds, where one male and one female compete together in order to gain the winning title. “We have to see each other as equals, and almost everywhere it’s done really well. There’s almost no imbalance in how you’re treated among your athletes,” Sasai said. Equal treatment from fellow athletes has driven Sasai forward during her competitions, and getting to mingle and compete with fellow archers has given her invaluable life lessons to take with her on her journey. “Very big moments of self discovery for me happened at archery, whether it be applying a philosophy I learned in archery to my regular life or the people that I met because they’re not just athletes,” Sasai said, “They’re people too.” Along with the lessons learned through archery and various competitions, Sasai has also experienced great successes that only fuel her athletic passions. The first of her major successes came with the first time Sasai won a national competition, the indoor U.S. National Archery Championship. “I think I was nine or 10, one of those two. That was the first time I won nationals,” Sasai said. “The year after, so [age] 10 or 11, is when I got my first national record. Then I think a year and a half or two years after that, I made my first U.S. national team, when I was 12 going on 13.” Although Sasai has accomplished much within the world of archery, no success comes without challenges and a lot of hard work. Through her years of archery, Sasai has hit countless bumps in the road, but overcoming those bumps is what led her from being a decent athlete to being a phenomenal one, capable of setting national records.
“The biggest challenge I had was going from good to great, and that is a sort of jump that everyone in a sport has to make when you’re just on the brink of reaching the next level,” Sasai said. “I tried to overcome that by just sitting down, reflecting and just looking at myself from an outsider perspective, whether that be actually watching myself shoot or listening to other people’s perspectives.” While working towards improving herself and her skills, Sasai has centered herself around one main goal; to see how far archery can take her, where she can travel, what opportunities she can seize and how far she can go before her life as a professional athlete is over. “If anything, no good things last forever, and you have to move on eventually from it,” Sasai said. “I just wanna see how long I can stay on this crazy journey in life.” Outside of traveling for archery competitions, Sasai is a full time high school student, balancing her school, home and sports life. When she isn’t studying or shooting arrows, Sasai loves indulging in various hobbies, such as playing video games, learning various instruments and kickboxing. “I use this strategy called compartmentalization, which I highly advocate for any very active student athletes, which is where school is at school, home is at home and sport is at sport. When you’re at home, you are relaxing, you are winding down, you are not thinking of the other two,” Sasai said. Although Sasai has already accomplished extraordinary feats at her age, her skill didn’t come without hard work and a constant drive to do better. Her diligence, along with the support of her parents, has carried her a long way.
Throughout Sasai’s archery journey, her dad has always been her biggest supporter, always cheering her on, whether it be next to her or from the sidelines. “He was always with me through the successes and through the hard times. When I needed things, he made sure I got them. If I wanted something to try, he’d make sure I’d be able to try it. To this day, he still tries his best to make sure everything happens for me,” Sasai said. While Sasai has had a great network of friends and family to help support her career throughout the years, what has really made her stand out from young athletes is her willingness to go above and beyond, something she thinks that all young athletes wanting to achieve something bigger should do. “Do what others will not do. That means communicating, making connections, so people can tell you what they’re doing so you can apply it to yourself and see if it works for you,” Sasai said. “It means putting in that extra effort that you might feel isn’t necessary at the time, but later you might think that could have been it. Those little things add up, it may take time, but they do add up.” While not everyone may be very skilled in a sport yet, or even participating in a sport, experience is key to expertise within any area of interest, and anyone is capable of pursuing their passions. “I think that anyone and everyone can do whatever they put their mind to as long as they have the drive,” Sasai said. “And they don’t just say that they do, they show it in their actions.”H
One of the top archers in the United States, sophomore Tsu Sasai recently began a new chapter in her archery journey as she joined the Hoyt Team. Sasai recommends that student athletes learn how to compartmentalize their lives in order to focus and be successful. PHOTO CONTRIBUTED BY TSU SASAI
