Then-Webster City High School junior Gavin Maines poses with his bow and trophy after winning the Freestyle Young Adult Male title at the 2021 NFAA Indoor National Championship in Yankton, S.D., in 2021.

Before he died in a pickup truck crash on March 26, 2022, 17-year-old Gavin Maines was something of a phenom when you put him behind a bow.

You should hear Dan Yoder tell it in the spring of 2021.

Yoder had watched Maines shred targets with his bow many times and thought he was a hidden gem in the middle of Iowa. Get him in front of a national audience, Yoder thought, and watch the heads turn.

“The kid is unreal,” Yoder said then. “I helped him when he and his grandpa (Don Miller) got into the archery club in Webster City. He’s gotten some help along the way from some other people and he’s just taken it to another level.”

As it turned out, Yoder was right. The kid was good.

Really good.

In fact, there wasn’t anyone better in the country.

Maines, when he was a 16-year-old junior at Webster City High School, won a national title in his first ever try in March of 2021 in Yankton, S.D. Competing in the 2021 National Field Archery Association (NFAA) Indoor Championship, he bested 28 other competitors in the Freestyle Young Adult Male division.

“I’d never gone to nationals before and so, going in, I just wanted to get in the top 10 because I thought that would be pretty good,” Maines told Troy Banning, the Daily Freeman-Journal’s sports editor at the time. “After the first day I was in second place and I knew I had a chance, but I had some ground to make up.”

Maines trailed Kolbe Borrelli of Arizona after the initial 60 arrows on Day 1, but drew even in the final end with back-to-back Xs in the center of the target.

Over the 120 arrows over two days, Maines and Borrelli both hit 115 of 120 Xs. And the national title was decided in a shoot-off.

“I felt more confident in the shoot-off than I did on those last two arrows,” Maines told Banning. “It can be second nature, but situations like that are never easy. My stomach sinks and you just get nervous, that’s the only way to put it.”

For the shoot-off, Maines and Borrelli each had 10 chances at an inside-out — a shot inside the center circle without touching the line. Maines connected on nine of his 10 attempts, one better than Borrelli.

“I can’t usually do that on demand and I don’t know how I could this time,” Maines said. “I had a lot of stuff going through my head after I won.”

Right by Maines’ side was his grandpa Don, who was a big influence on his life.

“He’s just very supportive and with me at all of this stuff,” Maines told Banning.

Maines began shooting in 2014, competing for three and a half years at the time Banning interviewed him. He won the 2020 Iowa State Pro-Am, also in a shoot-off.

And after winning a national crown, Maines said he was hopeful that he’d someday be able to make a career out of his passion.

“It’s definitely a cool feather in the cap, but my dream has always been to be a professional,” he said. “This gives me hope that it may be possible, even though it’s hard to do.”

Maines, of Woolstock, and Madison Fraker, of Algona, who was 18 at the time of the accident, died near Dakota City in Humboldt County when the pickup truck they were in rolled several times, ejecting them.

Maines was a senior at Webster City High School when he died.

He was also a member of the Iowa State Archery Association (ISAA), National Field Archery Association (NFAA), Archery Shooters Association (ASA), Border Brigade Archery Club; and was also a Better the Hunt pro staff, Scott’s Strings pro staff, Center-X staff shooter, and Xpedition staff shooter. He won the 2021 National Competition for Indoor NFAA, the ISAA 4-time shooter of the year, ASA Shooter of the year, multiple Iron Buck Sharpshooter wins, and an avid R100 participant, according to his obituary.

His parents are Randy and Emily Maines.

“He’s a natural archer and to say he loved archery was an understatement,” his mother is quoted in his obituary. “Gavin would wake up at 5 a.m. to shoot arrows in the basement before school. Gavin and his Grandpa Don Miller spent many weekends together traveling to archery events all over the country. With the help of his grandpa that natural skill was raised to the next level.”

On Thursday, March 31, 2022, the visitation for Gavin Maines was held at the Hamilton County Fairgrounds Show Arena.

That’s where the archers competed a mere week ago.