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| Last updated at 9:35 AM on 17/07/07 |
Mental play key in archery, says coach from P.E.I. 
Susan Lemke, who now lives in B.C., is the head coach of the Canadian team at the Pan Am Games
CHARLES REID
The Guardian
For Island native Susan Lemke, head coach of the Canadian archery squad at the Pan American Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, success on the field is mind over matter — literally.
“The game is 95 per cent mental. When you see the crack appearing in the façade you have to have the skills to put it back,” said Lemke from her home in Abbotsford, B.C. “Once they fall off the rails mentally it gets very hard to get them back on.”
Lemke was born in Charlottetown in 1961, living in Orwell Cove until 1972 when the family moved to B.C. She counts Orwell Cove’s Gerald Morrissey and Earnscliffe’s James Morrissey as uncles.
She started in archery in 1972 and along the way garnered five Canadian titles as a competitor, coached B.C. shooters to four medals at the 2003 Canada Winter Games and guided Canadian archers to three medals at the 2004 world junior championships.
It’s her first Pan Ams as an athlete or coach.
In Brazil, her job entails everything from being a liason between the six-member team and the Canadian Olympic Association to making sure rules aren’t broken and athletes are fitted for uniforms to getting the team picked up at the airport and trundled to the field to knowing practice schedules.
Add countering injuries or finding a cure for a callous and Lemke’s slate is full.
“I’m going to say this and I’m going to get in trouble, but it’s like looking after a group of children,” she said.
Still, coaching becomes a factor when countering an athlete’s habits.
“(I will say to an athlete) ‘you’re doing pretty good, but I can see emotionally you’re letting everyone else know what you’re doing on the field’.”
Or sidestepping the chirping interplay and trash talking that goes on between competitors at the line.
All the competitors shoot at the same time so a harsh word or a kind word spoken with the intent to disrupt comes into play.
“That’s kind of a hard (stop). You have to watch to ones who are detrimental.”
Lemke leaves today for a 22-hour trip to Rio.
Team Canada arrives Wednesday and the competition runs July 24-29.
The men’s team is coming off a top-eight finish at the world outdoor archery championships in Leipzig, Germany, over the weekend. Canada finished with a gold and a bronze and as the seventh- ranked overall team.
This means three team spots and two individual slots for the 2008 Games in Beijing, China, so with the success in Germany, Lemke’s optimistic about the Pan Ams.
“The team is actually coming off a high. They may not have even peaked yet,” she said. “We could be looking a team medal in the men’s division and potentially one individual medal in the men’s round as well.”
For the women, Lemke points to Olympian Marie-Pier Beaudet, who finished 56th overall in Athens in 2004, as a possible medal hopeful.
Lemke said she hasn’t visited the Island since 1982, and although archery isn’t a winter sport, she hopes to be on Team B.C.’s mission staff for the 2009 Canada Summer Games on P.E.I.
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n www.fca.ca
n www.rio2007.org.b
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Susan Lemke’s archery resume
n 1977 - Fourth-place finish at Canada Summer Games in Newfoundland and Labrador.
n 1997 and 1999 - Placed 32nd at world championships in Victoria, B.C. and France respectively.
n 2003 - Coached B.C.’s archery team to two gold and two silver medals at the Canada Winter Games in New Brunswick.
n 2004 - Coached Team Canada to one gold and two silver medals at the world junior championships in Lilleshall, U.K.
n 2006 - Given President’s Award by Sport B.C. for volunteer commitment and dedication; began developing archery equipment and facilities for the blind and disabled.
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17/07/07
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Sports Tonight
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