All I can say is.....

I have one of the NC Wildlife Archery Champions living in my house!!! C's team went to the NC State Wildlife competition today in Ellerbe. Their 1st event of the day was archery....well my stomach was in knots, due to the fact that Cody had a run in with the coach on Thursday. To make a VERY long story short....I took hats and shirts to the coach for the team on Thursday, and I had to take C's bow case out of my car and C said to me....Mama, please don't bump my bow, I don't want my sights out of alignment. And then he said something like, cuz I don't know if I can get them fixed.

Well his coach heard it and SCREAMED at the top of his lungs at Cody....$10,000 Cody is what it's worth....are you throwing it away.....yadda yadda yadda....and he proceeds to walk into the school and C is following him with the shirts....well the coach THREW the hats and shirts on the floor and then turned and got into C's face and continued to YELL at him. I finally stepped up, when I could move, since I was so shocked by it all, that I froze. And I said....Come on C, WE'RE GOING HOME!!! (he was suppose to be going to practice that day). And then me being the Mama....shoved the door to the room open and said, in a NOT so low voice....NO ONE TALKS TO MY CHILD LIKE SHIT!!!!! NO ONE!!!

We got in the car and I called his daddy...told him what had just happened and he asked to speak to C. C said to his daddy....I don't want to shoot ANYMORE....NOTHING!!! I don't want to go to State. So he and I went home. Next thing we knew the phone was ringing...it was the coach and I wouldn't answer it.

I was FURIOUS....and when I did sorta kinda finally calmed down, C and I went to return the coach's call, only to hear K say...hang the phone up, he's here in the driveway. Yep, the coach had shown up at the house. Jeff (the daddy) had called him and told him what C had decided to do...that he was NOT going to compete. The coach came to apologize to both of us....he had apologized earlier to Jeff, and Jeff had said to him...it's NOT me that you should apologize to....it's C.

So the man apologized to C and then started and I said....NO! You will NEVER talk to my child like that again!!! Then I said to him....let me ask you a question....if that had been YOUR daughter....and someone had YELLED at her....what would YOU do? He couldn't answer me. Instead we got to hear about how he was emotionally and physically exhausted, how he puts so much time into it....and I said....well you know, you are not the only one. These kids do too, and so do the parents that make sure they are at practice and make sure they have shotguns, rifles and bows.

He looked C in the eyes and said....All I can say is...I messed up, I'm sorry...I can't take it back, but I wish I could. I said to him....I want you to know I was so mad at you, that I could have bitten the heads off of penny nails. I looked the coach in the eye and said....YOU CRUSHED HIM!!!! and when you did that....it BROKE MY HEART!!!! The coach then looked at C and said....please tell me that you'll shoot on Saturday. C sorta put his head down and then nodded...and said....yes, sir. I looked at him and said....are you sure? He cut me a look and said....yes, ma'am....so I looked at the coach and said....We'll be there Saturday...but if you EVER think about yelling at him again...FOR NO REASON....just remember, I WILL TAKE A STICK TO YOUR HEAD!!!!

We talked for about 1 1/2 - 2 hours. And on Friday I went to school and signed C out early, then took him to the bow shop to make sure that his bow was okay for the competition. Now getting back to today and my baby boy the champ. Like I said up above the 1st event was archery, and the 4 team members for archery got up to the lines...there were 16 in all....East Forsyth and 3 other teams....and they started. C was doing wonderful.....5 in the yellow....moved back to 15 yds....5 in the yellow.....move back to 20 yds.....5 in the yellow....and by this time, I had my fingers crossed...and asking the good Lord to be with him....move back to 25 yds....5 in the yellow....HE HAD JUST SCORED A PERFECT 200!!!!!!!! He was the only one on the team that scored that and the team won 1st place in the state for archery!!!!! There were only 4 perfect scores in archery.

And Cody came in 2nd place in the state for archery with a score of 200 and 6 x's (bullseyes). When he was shooting and realized that he had shot the 200 he had the world's BIGGEST grin on his face!!!!!!! And I had tears streaming down my face. The art teacher at the high school (who helps them with the orienteering part of the competition) came up to me as tears were running down her face and hugged me, and whispered in my ear...I KNEW he could do it. I was hugging her back and said to her...so did I. Then her son who was in the competition also, walked up to Cody and grabbed him and hugged him while they were walking towards the targets to get their arrows.