Mike Whitfield is an archery coach, bow tech, and archery advocate dedicated to growing the sport of archery and building competent and competitive archers through sound technical training. His archery journey began at a camp site as a youth where he was given a traditional long bow to try out...and promptly tore up and bruised his arm! Still he became hooked and started looking for places to train. From there, he was lucky enough to be recruited by Don Branson, head coach of a JOAD and competitive archery team in Aurora, Illinois. With Don’s excellent, technical coaching over the course of a few years, Mike was able to win multiple state indoor and outdoor medals in olympic recurve competitions before Don lost his battle with cancer and passed away. Although the loss was hard on Mike (who stepped away from the sport for a few years), he never forgot the power of the technical training he received. After the loss of his father, Mike was cleaning out the basement and found his old bows, which reignited the passion for archery that had been lost. Now in Maryland, he began shooting and training again at Deer Creek Archery under George Bennett, who eventually recruited Mike to become an instructor for his beginner lessons. It was here that Mike began shooting, working on, and loving compound bows, working on all models from the steel cable bows of old all the way to the most modern competitive target archery and hunting bows. At Deer Creek, Mike was fortunate to be able to work with a variety of programs, styles, and people interested in archery. He helped to pilot a program for the Wounded Warriors that taught dozens of our honored veterans the way of the bow, as well as donating them an entire set up to begin hunting or competitive shooting. He launched a structured lesson program that brought brand new archers all the way to the basic competitive level, and offered a competitive sponsored shooting team based from the shop. He trained countless hunters that travelled all over the world to hunt various game, helping them with everything from gear selection to mental management and technical archery instruction. ​Mike Whitfield was honored to receive his USA Archery level 3 NTS certification at Lancaster Archery in Pennsylvania. He earned this qualification from esteemed coaches Bob Ryder (founder and head coach of the James Madison University archery program which began careers like that of Braden Gellenthein), and Heather Pfeil, coach of the US Olympic archer Casey Kaufhold. Through hard work and dedication, Mike worked his way up to become the manager, head instructor, lead bow tech, website and social media director, and more, expanding the reach of archery to thousands of new students over his 5 years working there. His competitive team of youth and adults won many local tournaments and a few archers even won some state and national level tournaments.  In early 2023, Mike earned his Level 4 USA Archery Certification from Coach Kisik Lee, head coach of the US Olympic Team. Now in Tacoma, Mike is grateful for the opportunity to launch Grit City Archery. Grit City Archery is a program dedicated to helping grow the sport of archery and help archers reach their goals (be they recreational, competitive, or hunting oriented) through technical instruction and strong personal connections with the archers we serve. We hope to create a team dynamic of fun, mutual support, and excellent technical discipline, and we hope you will join our program!