The quest to be the best drives all competitors, none more so than Megan Boykin Freeman of Smyrna.
The York Electric Cooperative member continues to zero in on her personal bull’s-eye: This year, she finished the Archery Shooters Association (ASA) season third place in the Women’s Open A division, one class below professional status. Freeman also notched a third-place ASA Shooter of the Year finish, which put her in the professional class for 2017.
“Each tournament brings its own difficulty, but I try my best to prepare. The shooters I face off against don’t allow me any rest!” says Freeman, 31. “Competing against these women makes me a better shooter!”
She’s come a long way.
She’s come a long way. “I began shooting archery when I was 22 years old,” Freeman says. “I was six months pregnant with my son. We purchased my stepson a little bow from Bass Pro for Christmas, and I saw him outside shooting, and I thought, ‘I’m going to try that!’ I got out there and shot that first arrow. It was like, ‘This is it!’ ”
Freeman soon got into 3D archery, taking aim at soft models of bears, mountain lions, deer and other animals in natural, outdoor ranges.
She began competing in ASA events in 2012, working her way up from the Women’s Known and Women’s Open B divisions to Open A in 2015.
Since November 2015, Freeman has been sponsored by Elite Archery, serving on the Factory Advisory Staff for the company, part of The Outdoor Group LLC. “They have made what I’m doing possible, that’s for sure,” she says. Freeman uses an Elite Energy 35 bow in competition.
South Carolina Living caught up with Freeman at the Augusta Pro/Am in late April, where she placed first in the nation in the individual Women’s Open A competition. She also participated in a team shoot with pro archer Connie Griffin there.
Griffin, who lives in relatively flat and open central Arkansas, says the hilly terrain near Augusta throws her off on estimating target distances. “I have a hard time judging in this stuff,” Griffin tells Freeman, who says it’s much like rural York County: “This is really what I shoot in all the time at home,” Freeman notes.
Ranging far from Smyrna, the ASA season took Freeman from Paris to London—Paris, Texas, to London, KY, that is—before wrapping up in Phenix City, AL. Freeman is eager to head back to Foley, AL, when ASA action resumes in February. She’s ready to compete against some of the nation’s top women archers.
“It has been my ultimate goal to become a professional archer. Every day I practiced, every shot I took was me getting one step closer,” she says.
Backing her along the way are her husband, Josh, stepson David, 14, and son Blake, now 7.
“This has only just begun for me. But the support I get from my family, friends, and sponsors lets me know that it’s going to be such a fun ride,” she says. “I encourage anyone out there that has a dream or a goal to go after it with everything they have! You won’t regret it!”
