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Brandon Glowark is bracing, pulling back 70 pounds worth of weight by a small loop attached to a string on a high tech bow as he places a fiber optic sight squarely on a foam sheep situated in a thicket at the McDonald Sportmen’s Club in McDonald. Releasing his grip on the loop sends an ultra lightweight, carbon fiber arrow soaring through the air at about 300 feet per second, landing it squarely in the foam animal’s side with a “thunk.” “I was shaking so bad,” says Glowark, after taking what amounts to be one of the few shots the busy <strong>West</strong> <strong>Allegheny</strong> senior has managed since placing second in the International Bowhunting Organization’s Indoor World Championship Tournament in Cleveland earlier this year. There, Glowark scored 400 out of a possible 440 points with 15 bulls eyes. That performance landed him a spot in the upcoming IBO Outdoor World Championship and Archery Festival at Seven Springs this August. But between completing his Eagle Scout and senior high school projects, Glowark’s barely had time to pick up his bow these past four months. And it’s becoming apparent that if he’s planning on taking forty shots this August at Seven Springs, he’s going to have to spend some serious time on the range, building his arm strength back up and, above all else, just getting comfortable again. STORY BY DOUG HUGHEY PHOTO BY SARAH KRIZINA “It’s all about comfort,” says Glowark, who also works as the bow tech at Gander Mountain. “You can be out there with a $2,000 bow and not be comfortable with it, and I’ll be out there with a $500 bow and I’ll beat you every time.” It’s not entirely unlike what great jazz saxophonist Charlie Parker used to say about missing practice, and how after a day, he could tell. Two days, his band mates could tell. Three days, his audience could. But even after that hiatus, Glowark’s also just managed a shot that, if this were a competition, would have awarded him ten out of eleven points; a shot in some ways comparable to a birdie in golf. And he’s just done it on the side of a hill, leaning slightly, and shooting around low hanging branches. Bow shooting, as it turns out, is just one small part of Glowark’s larger interest in the outdoors and in ecology and environmental engineering, all of which promises to translate into a career that will also help him, of course, keep shooting. This fall, he plans to attend Waynesburg University to study Environmental Science, and already has a leg up thanks to his recent Eagle Scout project. For that, Glowark worked for well over a year on an irrigation and water measurement system for the Pittsburgh Botanical Gardens at Settler’s Ridge, where he constructed flumes and weirs used to measure both acid mine and clean water drainage into a pond that the Gardens intends to dam. He was directed by Dr. Robert Hedin of Hedin Environmental and worked under Dayne Crowley, a hydro geologist at MACTEC Engineering & Consulting. Glowark says Crowley indicated such a project might have cost the Gardens around $10,000 if it had been contracted through a firm. Instead, says Glowark, who secured materials for the project through Lowes and Home Depot, “It didn’t cost [the Gardens] a penny and it didn’t cost me a penny.” At the same time Glowark was working on that project, he was also trying to get archery into his high school gym class as part of his senior project. Since 2010, Glowark has been trying to get more of his fellow students interested in the sport through the archery club he founded there. Budget cuts ultimately stymied his proposal, but thanks to HIS efforts, the club has garnered solid interest among at least about a dozen students, and no doubt will attract more in the future. �������������������������� ������������������������������������� ������������������������������������ ������������������������������������������� ���������������������������������������� ����������������������������������������������� ������������������������������������������ ����������������������������������������� ��������������������������������������� ���������������������������������������� �������������������������������������� ������������������������������� ��������������������� �������������������������������������������������������