Originally published in On Target, Volume 1, Issue 2, Spring 1996.
Last season an encouraging number of children sent in scores for the Children's Senior and Junior Divisions, about 78 in all. One child, however, finished as the undisputed number one archer in An Tir's Children's Senior Division by finishing the season with an average of 126. That gentle, the only child archer to break 100 and become An Tir's first Grandmaster Archer, is Brent of Falconmoors, now 14 years old.
A Children's Royal Round, for those who are not familiar with it, is one end of six flights from the 20 yard line, the 15 yard line and the 10 yard line, with a 45 second speed round from the 10 yard line. To give you an idea of how spectacular 126 points is, if Brent hit only the gold with all of his arrows, he would still be getting off seven arrows in the 45 second speed round. Assuming Brent doesn't hit the gold with all of his arrows, imagine how many arrows are loosed in that speed round to make up the difference. Now imagine a 13 year old shooting that Round and you see Brent of Falconmoors in action.
Brent started shooting soon after he and his father, John Bowslayer, started attending SCA events two years ago. Since then he has practiced every other weekend and, at events, when he is not shooting, he helps other children and adults with their shooting form, does waterbearing duties, and likes to watch the occasional heavy bout.
Mundanely, when he's not focusing on his eighth grade course work at Cedarcrest in Marysville, Brent LeBlanc plays guitar for the alternative rock band Sgt. Green, roller-blades with friends or hangs out with his girlfriend, Sarah.
What's in Brent's future? He's a little concerned about competing with adults, but with scores already in the 60s he's on his way to maturing into one of An Tir's best archers ever. Of course, like all boys his age, his interests will change over time, although Brent does admit that he'd like to be a professional musician.
For me, Brent's attitude towards life summarizes the SCA experience: "I'm too young to think about the future, I'm just having fun right now." An that's what being a teenager, and a SCAdian, are all about.
(Update: Brent has attended few SCA events since entering high school. His interests now, as then, are music, sports and girls. Of course, many light missile combatants who have been upstaged by Brent on the target range can't wait until his interests turn toward armored combat! — GdA)
