The Center is the legacy organization of Tom Barker, lead coach of South Texas Archery, a program affiliated with Junior Olympic Archery Development (JOAD). In addition, Tom serves as an archery coach for Victoria College (classroom and club), USA Archery Regional High Performance Coach, Level 3 USA Archery certification and as Vice-President of Texas State Archery Association. Tom was named USA Archery Volunteer Coach of the Year (2006) and was a finalist for the USOC Volunteer Coach of the Year (2006). Tom was also awarded the 2004 Texas 4-H Salute to Excellence Award.
Tom took a leave of absence from his plant manager job in the petrochemical industry and earned a Masters Degree in Business Administration from the University of Texas in Austin in 1993. Following his degree acquisition, Tom decided to retire and focus on making a difference with his family first and then the community in which he lived.
In 1995, Tom and his wife Marcia became involved with the 4-H archery program in Goliad County, Texas. Tom took on the project leader role for the Goliad County archery project in 1997. Goliad County’s archery program is part of the District 11 archery program. District 11 serves 18 Texas counties located between the cities of Houston, San Antonio and Corpus Christi. The area has grown to the largest multi county concentration of 4-H archers in the nation, currently at approximately 650 archers ages 6-19. Tom has replicated his skills into dozens of volunteer coaches who now manage County 4-H programs including young coaches who were once youth archers in Tom’s program. Tom served as an officer of the District 11 archery program until his own children moved on to the college.
Under Tom’s leadership, South Texas Archery was formalized as a JOAD program in 1998 creating a year round opportunity for archery participation. Tom has mentored 14 South Texas Archery JOAD archers to international archery teams representing the USA and trained scores of volunteer coaches. More than 60 archers in the program are national, state or regional champions and 15 have shot their USA Archery JOAD Olympian achievements. South Texas Archery JOAD club’s success has afforded Tom the opportunity to serve in several roles with the Texas State Archery Association and USA Archery as a member of the Coaches Development Committee and the Board of Justice Committee. Because only two small indoor ranges are currently available for part time use in the Victoria area, Tom’s own back yard has become the local outdoor archery range where hundreds of archers have developed their skills.
The second principal in this venture is Gene Kacir, a Regional High Performance Coach and Level 3 certified coach. Gene has years of experience working with a regional center of archery excellence in Connecticut. His years of experience with large group settings of archers in camps and formalized archery programs will serve the Center well in its programs for large educational groups.
Gene was NAA Level II Coach Certified in 1990 at the World Archery Center (TWAC) in Putnum, Connecticut and Level III certified in 2000 at Lake Placid, NY. Coach Lee certified Gene as a High Performance Coach in 2007 at Colorado Springs, CO. He has attended additional High Performance Seminars with Coach Lee in Chula Vista, CA, Chatham, NJ and Colorado Springs, CO.
In Connecticut, Gene worked with the Northwest Connecticut JOAD Club from 1989 thru 2007 in positions of coach, class content planner, secretary, treasure, president, equipment manager, coaches’ coach and anything else that needed doing. Club membership typically exceeded 60 young archers. While in Connecticut, Gene also worked with the Harwinton Rod & Gun Club winter youth archery programs starting in 1988 and transitioned them to a year around JOAD program in 2005. Gene’s duties there included those mentioned above. The Club used the Harwinton winter youth archery program to introduce club member’s children to archery teaching them safety and shooting skills. In addition, the program served to introduce members of the community to the club improving community relations. Due to range availability limitations, the maximum number of youth archers this program could have was 40. The program was always full. Gene taught his first Level I course in 2002 and by 2007 was doing six courses per year for summer camp counselors. He taught three Level II courses between 2004 and 2006.
Gene regrettably left both these programs in 2007 when he moved back to the Cuero, Texas area that his ancestors settled prior to 1860. In January 2009, he spent two weeks in Connecticut reviewing the BEST shoot cycle process. Since moving “home,” Gene has been involved with the South Texas Archery JOAD and the DeWitt County 4-H Archery programs as a coach.
The third principal with the Center is Joni Brown. She is the parent of two of the South Texas Archery JOAD alumni. Her personal mission is to support the Victoria community in a capacity as servant, leader, change agent and citizen responsive to the community’s needs. The Center fits well as a project under her tutelage. She brings extensive consulting experience in grant writing, nonprofit compliance with governmental regulations, nonprofit management and maintains key contacts on the local and state level.