Sunday evenings find most of us at home, resting and preparing for the week ahead.
Not so for Terissa Taylor.
The rural Moody County 14-year-old has a goal in mind and because of that, there is little time to rest. Taylor is aiming for gold at the upcoming Indoor Archery World Series in Las Vegas. The tournament is now less than two weeks away.
She wants the top of the podium.
“My dream is to be an Olympian,” Taylor said.

Her work ethic and determination just might get her there.
“It’s really neat to watch her progression and evolution coming in as a beginner with compound (bow) and watching how she shot it, and now with the recurve,” said her USA certified archery coach, Jack Moulton. “And if you put the time in, like she’s doing now, it can take you anywhere in the world that you want to go — on a very high level.”
Taylor took up the bow when she was eight-years-old, but she’s been around the sport much of her life through her siblings and through local 4-H programs. Most recently though, her natural talent and commitment to continually improve have consistently earned her a spot on the podium at nearly every competition she’s recently entered. Taylor also just made the North Central Elite Archery Team, which pairs her with other archers from around the Midwest who also have their sights set high.
The Colman-Egan 8th grader is fairly quiet and humble about it all.
Coach Moulton and her mom, Becky Cramer, however, couldn’t be bigger champions for the archer and young woman she is becoming through the sport.
“They not only train the kids physically,” said Cramer, “but mentally as well — mental management, how to be or how to react and cope in stressful situations. Terissa is getting all of that training now, and that’s really helpful to her in all walks of her life.”
Meeting and getting to know and compete against people from all over the world is another incredible life experience.
“I think she enjoys the friendships that she makes…from all over the country and she’s shot in Vegas at the World Shoot and she’s had people from all over the world standing next to her while she’s competing. I watch her face light up as she’s talking to people she’s meeting,” Moulton said.
Scoring more than them, however, is what she is training for — and a win in Vegas would be amazing, said Taylor. If nothing else, she wants to do better than she did last year which was 7th place. Even that isn’t bad considering she’ll be up against 75-100 others in her age division.
“Her goal is lofty,” said Moulton. “But she’s got the ability and talent to do it.”