From borrowed bows to national champions

Tracy Taylor's archery shop is a hub for beginners and competitors drawn to a sport where quiet focus can shape a child

1:30 p.m. April 26, 2026

DUANE CROSS
MCO Publisher•Editor

Inside Taylors Archery, one target says more than any trophy on the wall.

It belonged to Easton Terrill, one of the young archers in Tracy Taylor’s program. It marks the kind of weekend most shooters never touch.

At indoor nationals, Terrill shot a perfect 150 with 30 Xs one day, then came back and did it again the next. That forced a shoot-off against a young archer from Wisconsin. Then Terrill did it again.

By the time the weekend was over, Taylor said, Terrill had shot a 450 with 90 Xs.

In plain English, Terrill did not leave a point on the board. Across 90 scoring arrows, every one counted as an X. The 450 was the maximum possible score. The 90 Xs gave him a perfect tie-breaker count, too. He did not just win. He never missed the X ring.

“The level of concentration and focus to do that is amazing,” Taylor said.

In archery, that kind of performance does not come with a roaring crowd. There is a line, a target, a bow, and a room holding its breath.

“Archery’s a quiet sport,” Taylor said. “You don’t have a lot of people screaming, not like at a ballgame. It’s kind of like golf. It’s a respectful type of quiet.”

That discipline is at the center of what Taylor built. Taylors Archery is a bow shop. But not just that.

It is also a classroom, a youth program, a hunting resource, a tournament home, and a place where young shooters learn to stand still when everything in their body wants to move.

And it all started with a borrowed bow.

‘We ain’t got no bows’

Taylor grew up in Moore County and graduated from Moore County High School in 1983. He grew up hunting, but archery came later.

One fall, a friend he used to bird hunt with suggested they go bow hunting. Taylor had a practical answer: “We ain’t got no bows,” he remembered saying. So they borrowed what they needed from their pastor and one of the pastor’s brothers.

Taylor got bit.

He started working on his own equipment, then opened a small archery shop in Moore County in 1992. At first, it was a side business. He ran it from his home on Woosley Road, then later from his place on Harry Hill Road.

“I started working on my own stuff some,” Taylor said. “I said, ‘Man, I’ll open up a little shop and make a little side money.’ And then it just turned into a little more.”

That “little more” eventually became Taylors Archery.

Taylor moved the shop to 100 E Lauderdale St. in Tullahoma in 2010 while still working at Bridgestone. The first year or two were rough. Later, he discovered an employee he trusted had been stealing from him.

That can break a small business. Taylor kept going. He took a pension buyout from Bridgestone, came on full-time at the shop, and handled the problem. Since then, the shop has continued to grow.

More than pull it back and let it go

Walk into Taylors Archery, and it is obvious the place is built for people who take the sport seriously.

Bows hang from the walls. Targets carry the evidence of good days and steady nerves. Arrows, accessories, and equipment fill the shop, but the first thing Taylor sells is not gear.

It is fit.

“You don’t have to come and buy the best of everything,” he said. “You can buy a starter setup. You can buy a good used bow. But it needs to fit you.”

That means the right draw length. The right weight. The right instruction. The right setup for the person holding the bow.

For children, Taylor said age 6 is usually a good starting point, though there are exceptions. A child has to be able to safely walk from the shooting line, score a target, and understand what is expected.

This is not backyard guessing. “It’s not just pull it back and let it go,” Taylor said. “We’re serious about it. Very serious.”

That seriousness shows up in the youth program.

Taylor said the team usually has about 48 kids. Most youth competitors age out around 18, though some can return for an extra year depending on birthday, eligibility, and whether they are competing collegiately.

The kids are learning archery, but they are also learning how to handle pressure without showing it. That matters in a sport where the whole room can feel the difference between a calm hand and a nervous one.

The program has produced multiple national champions. Taylor said he would have to check his notes for the exact number, but he is not shy about the program’s standing.

“I guess it kind of ain’t bragging if it’s true,” he said, “but we’re probably the best team in the state.”

A sport of inches, nerves, and X rings

Taylor knows that archery can be hard to explain to people outside the sport.

At indoor competitions, shooters may compete on different targets depending on their skill level and equipment class. Younger or newer shooters may use a larger target face because it gives them more margin for error. More advanced shooters often move to a five-spot target, where tight groups matter and arrows can start tearing each other up if they are all landing in the same place.

There are equipment classes, age divisions, and separate boys and girls divisions. The competition structure can get complex quickly.

But the heart of it is easy to understand. Stand on the line. Do the same thing again. Do not flinch. Do not rush. Do not let one bad shot become two.

That is what made Terrill’s national championship performance so stunning. One X is hard enough. Ninety without a miss is something else entirely.

Taylor remembered another young archer from the program, a girl who had been with them for years and shot recurve. No cams. No compound let-off. Just a bow, string, rest, sight, stabilizer, and a whole lot of work.

She won her national championship on her final arrow.

Taylor had watched her next-to-last end dip a little low. He told her to adjust her sight. Her father was nervous about it. She made the adjustment anyway. Then she walked back to the line and won it.

Those are the moments Taylor remembers. Not because they were loud. Because they were earned.

The equipment changed. The expectations did not.

Taylor has watched archery equipment change dramatically since he opened his first shop in 1992. The biggest leap, he said, is quality. Today’s bows are more consistent, better built, and require less constant adjustment. They absorb vibration better and feel steadier in the hand.

“Energy’s got to go somewhere,” Taylor said. But the bow still does not do the work for you.

Taylor is not buying the movie version of archery – the hero yanking a bow off his shoulder and landing a perfect shot on command. Trick shooters exist, and Taylor respects what they can do. But trick shooting and competitive archery are not the same thing.

“The guys that are doing the trick shooting, most, if not all of them, aren’t going to be able to hang in the competitive side of it,” he said. “It’s different.”

Competitive archery is repetition. Form. Patience. Pressure. It rewards the person who can make one shot look exactly like the one before it.

Taylor compares archery’s place in the sports world to motocross: serious, demanding, and bigger than most outsiders realize. “What archery needs to really explode,” he said, “is it’s like golf, where it’s more mainstream.”

The challenge, he said, is that archery can be hard to watch unless you have “skin in the game.”

But for the families who do, there is plenty of drama. ... Sometimes it comes down to one arrow.

Service matters

Taylors Archery sells bows, arrows, accessories, and crossbows. But Taylor is careful about what he carries and who he works with.

He is not interested in chasing every company or every trend. Companies that struggle with quality or customer service make him cautious because, when something goes wrong, customers often look to the local shop first.

“If you’ve got a problem with your equipment and it’s something they’ve got to take care of, it makes me look bad when they’re not taking care of it,” Taylor said.

That is why customer service is more than a slogan for him. It affects what he sells, what he recommends, and what he avoids.

The same honesty applies to beginners.

Taylor tells people to come in with a budget in mind. Not because he wants to spend every dollar, but because it helps him know where to start.

Beginners have options. A young child can usually get started in the $300 to $400 range. But there is a limit to how far a bargain setup can go.

Some people want to find out whether their child likes archery before spending money. Taylor understands the instinct, but he also knows a poor fit can make a child dislike the sport before they ever get a fair try.

“If your kid wants to run track and you go buy them a pair of used shoes that’s four sizes too big,” he said, “they’re probably not going to enjoy it.”

In other words, the right start matters.

That is the through line at Taylors Archery, whether Taylor is helping a hunter, a first-time shooter, or a kid learning to steady a bow under pressure.

Finding the X

Taylor has now spent more than 30 years in archery.

He has watched equipment change. He has watched children become champions. He has watched beginners walk in not knowing where to start and leave with a bow that fits. He has seen the sport frustrate people, hook people, humble people, and steady people.

At its best, archery teaches something that carries beyond the target. It teaches patience. It teaches control. It teaches a person to breathe, focus, and try again.

Taylor started with a borrowed bow and a simple admission: “We ain’t got no bows.” Now, more than 30 years later, he spends his days helping other people find theirs.

The X ring is small. The room is quiet.

And Taylor is still there, helping kids learn just how steady they can be.