- Coach: Get in your spot.
[whistle]
[snap, thud]
There you go. Good job.
- It's 7:00 a.m.
and Physical Education teacher Scott Christenson
has these archers up early.
- Make sure you're steadied on it. [snap]
Don't worry about where your arrow's going.
It'll get there.
- As the arrows fly,
Scott's encouragement is right on target.
- Make sure you're steadied on it.
[thud] There.
When I actually got hired here,
I decided to bring it into Cadott High School
with the National Archery in the Schools Program,
and the rest is kind of history.
[thud, whistle]
Last round and you guys gotta get to class.
- A block away,
there's another young archer practicing in his basement.
[snap, thud]
- I just kind of fell in love with archery and bows.
Usually the first thing I do is set my stance.
And then I'll adjust my glove to where I want it.
Then from there, it's just routine.
Pull back and shoot.
[snap, thud]
- Kaden is homeschooled along with his sister
and the family dog is always close by.
- Mom: For these problems, you can do the FOIL method.
- His mom is teacher, cook and homework helper.
- Because we have a negative 20 here,
so we have to have a negative 20.
- Gives you a lot of freedom.
More chances to do a little bit more in archery, I guess.
- Anyone can do the math when looking at the archery honors
that hang on Kaden's bedroom wall.
His best score is a 298 in competition.
He's aiming for perfection.
- My goal is to try to get a 300 in tournament.
And to hopefully win state
and to place at nationals again would be cool.
* *
- In this small town, big accomplishments spread quickly.
And just down the street, enter the high school
and you are greeted by banners
signaling years of archery success.
- We've had some pretty darn good archers
come through this program.
So he's probably grown up his whole life
seeing me coach archery
and it probably rubbed off on him.
- Scott the archery coach is Kaden's dad.
- He's taught me everything I know about archery.
- Coaching him is easy.
Nice and relaxed.
Down and away with the elbow.
[snap, thud]
Good job. Much better release.
- He'll see if I'm torking the string
or dropping my bow a little bit.
- There's really a mental edge in archery.
You have to be focused on every shot
and committed on every shot.
- That's just the drive it takes and the practice it takes
and the dedication.
Being at practice every day.
- He's really fussy. [thud]
He's a perfectionist. [thud]
He's persistent. [thud]
He's not happy
and he's not satisfied until he gets that perfect round.
- Mom: That's good.
- Because Kaden is homeschooled,
he can practice with the high school team
but competes as an individual.
[snap, thud]
Kaden's archery career almost ended before it even started
with a freak accident in the basement.
- The 2014 season, first year I was ever in
the National Archery in the Schools Program.
My bow got wet because it was snowing out.
So I hung it up downstairs by the fire on a nail.
And a couple days later, I went to grab it.
And it got caught.
Then the nail came out and actually shot me.
So, it shot me right in the chest.
- X-rays reveal the extent of his injury.
- Then I couldn't do archery for two or three weeks,
because I couldn't pull back the bow.
Definitely gave me motivation. [thud]
- In 2018, Kaden rode that motivation
all the way to the National Shootout round.
On the line, thousands of dollars in scholarships
and just one chance to shoot the arrow.
- I just tell myself to just trust my aim
and trust my form.
- I was kind of a wreck but it was fun to watch.
- There's nothing to get worried about.
Just pull back and let her go.
If there's more nerves in shooting for $10,000
or turkey at ten yards full strut coming in.
It gets pretty nerve-racking there.
- I was very nervous for him.
I was actually running the home video camera,
so I was trying to hold it as steady as I could.
- On this day,
Kaden would have to find the nerve,
step back 15 meters
and let fate fly at a tiny bullseye.
- It's about that big.
About the size of an orange.
[snap, thud]
[whistle]
- He shot well enough to take home a $10,000 scholarship.
- Under pressure, he can handle it.
And I think that's what separates him
from the other kids
is that he just deals with that pressure in his own way.
If history repeats itself,
he's only second in the Wisconsin state
and third in the nation and third in the world.
It's unbelievable.
It's beyond my wildest dreams.
Yeah, he's pretty good.
- Having one of his student archers achieve elite success
was something Scott only dreamed of
when he first started the archery program.
- It was my goal to have some kid
someday place at the national tournament
and hopefully get into that scholarship shoot-off
and win a scholarship.
It's cool because it's my own kid.
I can't take anything away
from the kids that we've had here in the past.
They've been extremely good at archery
and have had some really good accomplishments
throughout the years.
- As for Kaden, he's focused on the future.
- My dream would be an Olympic archer.
I would love to do that. [snap, thud]
And I've always looked up to them guys.
It'd be cool to shoot with them one day. [snap, thud]