COOK- The medals hang in neat rows on a rack on the bedroom wall, a bright trail of victories stacked two deep from just the past two seasons, but Bailey Brunner doesn’t dwell on them long.
“I had to double them up, otherwise it would be fully filled,” she said.
Bailey, a fifth grader at North Woods School and member of the Grizzlies archery team, had a season for the ages this year. She dominated the National Archery in the Schools regional competition meets, winning every elementary girls division bullseye and 3D target competition she entered except one, where she finished second. Her state championships in both formats in March earned her a trip to the NASP Western Nationals in Utah in late April, where she again was a double champion.
And now she’s taking aim at an even bigger prize, the NASP Championships in Myrtle Beach, S.C. the first week in June.
That’s mighty fine shooting for someone who’s only been competing for two years.
“I don’t know how to really explain it, I’ve just worked really hard at it,” Bailey said. “This my third year actually shooting, second year in competition. But I’ve had a lot of people help me and, like, guide me through it. And obviously my parents have been a really big help because they were my coaches.”
Her dad Jesse Brunner, an experienced archer and bowhunter, coaches the North Woods team alongside her mom Jen, who’s been an archer for two decades, along with several others. Both girls in the Brunner family shoot, and Bailey credits her eighth-grade sister Michaela, also a top competitor, with helping spark her early interest.
“Michaela, she won state in fifth grade and also went to nationals in Utah,” Jesse said, looking at Bailey and smiling. “I remember you said that you wanted to be there shooting, too.”
Growing into it
Bailey’s average scores rank her sixth nationally in bullseye and first or second in 3D among all elementary girls, Jesse said, but one unexpected challenge nearly knocked her off target before the season even began.
“She grew like six inches over the summer,” Jesse laughed. “So, when you grow that much, your aim point and everything is totally different.”
That meant re-tuning her bow – adjusting the knock point, tweaking draw weight, and dialing in her anchor point.
“I adjusted the knock point a little bit lower and got that bow right,” Jesse said. “Then she was shooting 50s. It makes a big difference.”
Form is everything in NASP, where all archers shoot with a standard 20-pound Genesis compound bow – no sights, no stabilizers. And for Bailey, that consistency starts before the arrow ever flies.
“Every time I pull back on my bow, I put my fingers down one at a time. I normally only go to three, and then I release,” she said. “Because if you shoot too quick, then it can mess up your arrow because you jerk on the bow.”
Jesse said Bailey hit her peak scores at the Mt. Iron-Buhl regionals, and from there, her winning streak continued with first place finishes in both 3D and bullseye at regionals, state, and Western Nationals.
At home, Bailey’s been chasing a personal benchmark.
“I got a 289 in the garage. I was so mad that it wasn’t a 290,” she said, grinning. “I dropped 11 points. I was really mad. I was close.”
Archery is as much mental as it is mechanical, and Bailey’s ability to stay composed under pressure has become one of her defining traits, but she’s not immune to experiencing some nerves now and then.
“Especially when I’m getting high scores, I get scared that I’m gonna mess up,” she said. “But I just have to stay calm and collect myself for a few minutes and just focus on getting my form right and all that stuff.”
Sibling rivalry
Bailey is quick to credit others, and just as quick to size up the competition. Including her sister Michaela.
“There’s a ton of competition with her because... I’m not trying to be mean here, but she got into a funk this year and started shooting lower than me,” Bailey said. “I tried to help her, because I want her to be better and that makes me strive to be better. If I beat her, that gives me a feeling of greatness because I’ve always wanted to beat my big sister.”
Bailey doesn’t stop with just family benchmarks. She looks up to elite regional shooters like ninth-grader Masen Chambers of Greenway and national competitors like a top-scoring girl from Wisconsin.
“I look up to all the guys that are better than me. All the people,” she said. “I look up to Mason Chambers because he shoots so good. I’ve always wanted to shoot with him. He shot a 299 at regionals.”
Calm in the chaos
For a young student-athlete juggling track, volleyball, and basketball, archery offers Bailey a different kind of space.
“I mean, it’s quiet and I like it being quiet. I like being loud, but sometimes the loudness can get to be too much,” she said. “And I just like to be calm for a second and be able to, like, think about stuff in that moment and not have so many things going on in your head.”
That mental stillness gets tested in high-pressure moments. Bailey vividly recalled a fourth grade meet in Hibbing where she encountered target panic – a flinching, disorienting reflex that even elite shooters experience.
“I was shooting on the turkey, and I missed – I don’t know what happened. It just felt, like, weird,” she said. “And I kept doing that for, like, three more arrows.”
She finally regained her composure and zeroed in for her final shot.
“On my last arrow, I finally got out of it and got a nine,” she said. “But then on that round, I only got a nine, so, that was kind of devastating for me.”
With help from coaches and family, Bailey learned to work through those mental blocks.
“A lot of people just helped me and said just calm down and shoot your best,” she said. “Because it doesn’t matter where you get on the target. It matters pretty much about your form.”
A sport for life
At home and at school, the Brunners see archery as more than a seasonal sport – it’s a lifetime pursuit.
“It’s a sport that will last forever,” Jesse said. “You can shoot school NASP, you can go on the 3D tournament, or you can go on the bullseye tournaments, or you can go to the Olympics. And you can hunt.
Bailey already bow hunts grouse and got her first deer this year.
“I personally like to shoot grouse. It’s like, I love it every time. I’ve been wanting it to be grouse season for so long,” she said. “That’s one of the things I’m beating my sister at again. She doesn’t like hunting that much.”
And she has another goal she’s yet to fulfill.
“I’ve always wanted to try shooting off my horse,” she added.
Looking ahead
Bailey will travel to Myrtle Beach next month with her family, and also teammates Cooper and Brock Long, middle-schoolers who shot qualifying scores to earn the right to go to the championship. Bailey is ready to hit the road now.
“Yeah, I’m excited,” she said, “because I’ve never been there before.”
As the Grizzlies look to rebuild their elementary roster, Bailey’s success may be the spark others need. Jesse said the team lacked enough shooters this year to qualify for team competition, largely due to overlap with basketball and misunderstandings about scheduling flexibility.
Bailey hopes more kids give it a shot.
“We did actually have nine, but not all of them, like, would shoot,” she said.
Until then, Bailey’s already looking forward to next year, when she’ll step up to the middle school division.
“I wish I was still in elementary next year,” she said, half-joking, half-not.