Dodgeville’s Gretchen James Coached, Inspired World-Class Archers

   Wautoma’s Carole Clark was a four-time All-America archer at Arizona State University (1977-1980), but the Sun Devil Hall of Famer might not have realized her Olympics-level talent if she hadn’t goofed off in ninth-grade gym class.

   Fortunately for Clark, her gym teacher at Camelback High School in Phoenix sentenced her to detention. When the then Carole Cheuvront, age 14, showed up after school, her gym teacher suggested she spend detention learning to shoot archery.

   That teacher was Gretchen L. James, a Dodgeville native who died Feb. 17 at age 96. Besides teaching physical education classes in Phoenix, James coached the high school’s golf, archery and tennis teams. And rather than just mete out punishments during detention, James used that time to introduce students to lifetime sports. It was also provided her opportunities to assess students’ natural talents for sports she taught and coached.

   After teaching archery’s basics to Carole Cheuvront and watching her shoot a few arrows, James encouraged her to join her team. That carried weight. Students and parents alike knew James could judge talent and develop it, no matter what she coached.

   To be fair, Clark, James and archery were destined to meet. Detention just hastened things. Every freshman girl attending Camelback High School in that era received three to four weeks of archery training in James’ gym class. Still, it didn’t hurt Clark to get a jump on many classmates by getting one-on-one coaching at detention.

   In a late-1970s magazine interview, James discussed the importance of merging dedication and natural talent.

   “If you have ability, archery comes very fast,” James said. “I can take the girls as freshmen, start them, and within nine months they’ll catch up with girls who have had as much as four to six years of archery already.”

Gretchen James of Dodgeville turned beginning archers into world-class competitors while teaching physical education and coaching archery teams during her 20-plus years at Camelback High School in Phoenix, Arizona. At left, she coaches one of those students, Carole (Cheuvront) Clark, now of Wautoma. James returned to Dodgeville after retiring in 1985. She died in February at age 96.   — Photo courtesy of Carole Clark

   Good coaching helps, of course. By the time James retired in 1985 and returned to Dodgeville with her hometown sweetheart and husband, Orville, she and her archery teams had compiled a long list of state, national  and international feats:

   -- Her varsity teams amassed a 127-1 record.

   -- Her junior varsity teams went 95-0.

   -- Her archery teams won 18 Arizona state championships.

   -- Her archers also won 29 national championships in five divisions.

   -- James was named the state’s “Coach of the Year” five times by the Arizona Coaches Association.

   -- In 1979 she was named the “National Girls Coach of the Year.”

   -- During a six-year stretch during the 1970s, James’ archery teams broke 33 national records.

   -- In 1972 and 1984 she served as the head official archery scorer at the 1972 and 1984 Olympics.

   -- In 1993 she was among the first five women inducted into the Athletic Coaches Hall of Fame by the Arizona Interscholastic Association.

   -- In 2006 James was inducted into the National High School Athletic Coaches Hall of Fame.

   James also excelled as a golf and tennis coach. Her final coaching record for all three sports was 682-58-5 ties.

   Through it all, James never forgot her athletes and friends. She and Orville bought a motor home after retiring and toured the country, often visiting former student-athletes wherever they settled. During one such stop, they visited Kevin and Carole Clark in Wautoma.

   The Clarks met at Arizona State University after earning archery scholarships in high school, Carole’s at Camelback and Kevin’s at Fond du Lac in east-central Wisconsin. So, it’s no exaggeration when the Clarks credit Coach James for bringing them together, even though they grew up nearly 1,800 miles apart.

   “Carole would have never met me and become a bowhunter if Coach James hadn’t gotten her into archery,” Kevin Clark said. “It’s funny how those things go.”

   The Clarks competed for berths on Team USA’s 1980 Olympics team, but fell just short in the qualifying rounds. As fate would have it, they wouldn't have gone to the Olympics anyway that year. The United States led a 60-nation boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics after the Soviet Union, the Games’ host country that year, invaded Afghanistan in December 1979.

   Such thoughts and recognition come easily when the Clarks discuss and honor Carole’s longtime coach. The Clarks attended a joint memorial service Friday, May 2, in Dodgeville for Gretchen and Orville. Her husband died Nov. 12, 2024, in Dodgeville at 99.

   James was a competent archer, but a world-class archery coach. During the early 1970s she earned a scholarship to attend a prestigious coaching camp, which became the World Archery Center. In subsequent stints there, James worked as an instructor after earning “instructor” and “international” ratings at the center.

   Meanwhile, her high school teams steadily improved. The Clarks credit James for turning Camelback High School into a “feeder program” for Margaret Klann’s legendary archery teams at Arizona State University. Klann, known as “the mother of collegiate archery,” coached ASU’s archery teams from 1963 to 1976, and was instrumental in creating the first national collegiate archery championship and archery’s first All-America team.

   Klann died in 2000, and an annual award in her name is presented at each year’s Collegiate National Championship event.

   Besides teaching and honing her athletes’ skills, James also taught them about work and commitment. And though she never cut girls from her teams and made participation medals for every athlete, she set goals and high standards. And because equipment was sparse, each team member progressed through a series of five bows, each of higher quality than the previous bow, with each girl buying gear from teammates until progressing to the fifth bow.

   To get that top-of-the-line bow, the girl had to pay for it herself. James’ policy forbid parents from buying it. Her reasoning? Archers more likely will stay with the sport after graduation if they bought that high-end bow.

   Coach James would be proud to know that Carole (Cheuvront) Clark still owns that Hoyt Pro Medalist recurve bow she bought in high school nearly 50 years ago. She bought it by working at McDonald’s and paying $20 monthly to her parents’ “Grasping Hands Finance Co.”

   She also still owns the Hoyt Pro Medalist TD bow that came later in college, where she achieved All-America status and the 1980 Collegiate National Archery Association championship.

   Her parents, however, bought her that bow.

   Rumor has it that Coach James wouldn’t hold that against her.