Twelve-year-old Ogden native Joukai Omura is up for the 3Brand and Sports Illustrated Youth Athlete of the Year honor, to be awarded near the end of October, following his first-place individual finish while competing with Wasatch Archery Team at The Vegas Shoot 2026 in Las Vegas earlier this spring.

Omura, having practiced archery for just more than two years since receiving his first bow two Christmases ago, outperformed more than 3,500 archers in his division at the national competition in Nevada. He likened it to the Super Bowl of archery competitions, which have enjoyed steady growth through the 2020s.

“It was just something new,” Omura said of receiving the bow at 9 years old.

Within a few short months, Omura — with the guidance of his parents, Fred and Emily Omura — joined Ogden’s local S3DA (Scholastic 3-D Archery) program, Wasatch Archery, through the Weber County Archery Park in Ogden. The young Omura represents Wasatch Archery in competitions across Utah, Montana and Nevada, as his family travels and practices archery as a unit.

Tyler Douglas, the nephew of one of Omura’s coaches, operates Douglas Archery, an outfitter and detailing shop inside of the Weber County Archery Park. It’s part of the competitive environment where the Omura family has immersed itself over the last few years.

He’s been an up-close witness to Omura’s growth and to the benefit the sport’s had on several young athletes veering toward archery.

“It’s kind of cool to see them progress and take it seriously,” Douglas said of Omura and his family. “A lot of kids come in, they’ll shoot here and practice once a week at club practice or whatever. But that family’s kind of taken it a little more serious, and they’re in here it seems like every day practicing stuff and really trying hard.”

In February, Omura’s coaches with Wasatch Archery gifted him a brand-new bow ahead of his Las Vegas trip. Omura gifted his original, blue bow to another emerging young archer, Elliot Petty of Vernal. Omura competed against Petty for months, and watched his peer ascend on the same path he did by immersing himself in a new interest.

Omura recommends that anybody, at almost any age, pick up archery for sport or leisure.

“Try it out, see how it is and if you kind of get into it, get a little better setup and you eventually get pretty good,” Omura said.

Votes for Omura in the Youth Athlete of the Year Competition are tallied daily via text and Facebook. Visit www.athleteoftheyear.org online for more information.

The Weber County Archery Park is open Tuesday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., and Saturday through Sunday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. The facility caters to all age groups, Douglas said, and hosts regular friendly and competitive events each month.

“It’s a good way to get kids outdoors and get ’em away from the screens and indoors and stuff,” Douglas said. “It’s a cool sport because you can get out of it everything you put into it. It’s an individual sport, you rely on nobody else, and you can do with it what you want.

“You want to shoot once a month, a couple times a year, have at it, have fun. Or, if you want to get as serious as you want to, and get to the highest level, you can do that, too.”

More information on the archery facility can be found online at www.wcparksrec.com/wcarchery.

Connect with Standard-Examiner sports reporter Conner Becker via email at cbecker@standard.net, X @ctbecker and Instagram @standardexaminersports.