Clayton Litchfield is the guy you want sitting next to you on a long bus ride or plane trip.
His friendly, ‘aw shucks’ demeanor disarms you immediately and allows you to engage in a friendly conversation.
It’s that same demeanor that allows the Trigg County High School senior the opportunity to make friends in archery, even while shooting in competition.
Litchfield put together strong scores coming out of middle school and after a couple of what he calls “down years,” he’s looking to regain that level from a couple of years ago.
“I’d like to get back to where I was in about eighth grade. It’s been a little rough,” he said. “I’d like to be at about the 290s range, 290, 292, somewhere in there. If I shot high 280s, I’d be okay with that too.”
Litchfield has also struggled with fundamentals vs. what works for him. It’s a fine line that he knows he may have stepped across from time to time.
“I have a really weird release. It’s been that way since I was in third grade, and I’ve had plenty of coaches that tried to fix it. I guess it’s helped in some sense, but it’s also hurting in some sense, trying to get me away from what I’m used to,” Litchfield said. “It’s what I’m comfortable with, and it helps me shoot.”
But at the end of the day, Litchfield knows the coaches are there to help every archer be their best, and moving into a new practice facility that allows everyone to practice at the same time helps with that.
“The coaches don’t have to be there four days a week (like before). It takes a little bit more off the coaches and they can help more people,” he said.
As a senior, Litchfield said everyone in the same building also allows the upperclassmen to mentor the younger shooters.
“I feel like all the seniors and high schoolers are looked up to more now because we practice together instead of where middle schoolers used to practice later or earlier in the afternoon and then we practiced later in the afternoon.”
He also said the mentorship also extends from practices to meets. One such opportunity popped up last Saturday at Murray.
“I shot with an elementary schooler from our school and he didn’t even know at the bottom that you had to sign. So, just teaching little things like that to get him through the rest of the year so he can worry about shooting at practice.”
With just a few months left in the archery season, Litchfield will focus on region and state competition and then set his sights on veterinarian school.
“I’d like to go to Auburn after that. Hopefully, Murray State’s vet building will be built by then and I might be able to stay close to home.”
Litchfield discussed more in this YSE interview.
2 Responses
Clayton is the man!
Let goooo Clayton