Becker hosted the 4rd Annual Erich J. Kanne Memorial Archery Tournament in the Becker High School Fieldhouse Saturday morning. One hundred and sixty-seven archers participated while 500+ were in attendance to watch and cheer on the shooters. 

 

Cowboy Jacks provided concessions and was constantly busy during the five-hour event.

 

Wade Grinager was brought on to do the emcee-ing and announcing and he was impressive. Grinager is a professional rodeo announcer and master of ceremonies that provided the archers and guests with great entertainment during the entire event.  He especially impacted the audience when he asked everyone to stand and face the flag while he expressed his appreciation and admiration for the country’s military.

 

It was quite a tribute!

 

Kari and David Kanne are the parents of Erich, who died in a tragic accident in 2013. Erich was an avid archer so his parents wanted to honor him by hosting this tournament annually.

 

Their mission is to nurture today’s youth archers interested in pursuing and participating in the sport of archery as well as giving back to to this country’s military service who have selflessly given of themselves. 

 

One of the archers Saturday was a local boy from Princeton named Cole Zeug. Cole is 13 years old and has been shooting competitive archery for a little over two years. He has always enjoyed shooting compound freestyle.  

 

Cole is a 12-time state champion in MSAA, MAA and JOAD. He was the MSAA state grand champion and holds eight state records. He won the JOAD silver Olympian achievement award and is a two-time NFAA Midwest sectional champion as well as a 2016 NFAA outdoor target nations silver medal winner.

 

Recently, Cole took second at the 2017 NFAA Indoor National championship, third at the 2017 JOAD indoor national championship and became national champion at the  2017 U.S.

national indoor Championship earlier this month.

 

Zeug is part of Granite City JOAD and a team member of North Central Elite Archers. Linda Beck has been Cole’s personal coach since he started  shooting competitively. 

 

The Kannes want to send out a special thank you to John and Julie Charles with JJC Outdoors. They are their largest sponsor and help provide clothing and bales for the staff shooters as well as providing a Redneck Predator Hunting Blind each year for the raffle.

 

Dozens of vendors set up booths throughout the fieldhouse including JWT Heavenly Springers, TOG, Wild River Archery, Wrapped up with Love, Wild Fire Taxidermy and Fallen Outdoors. 

 

The event also featured a silent auction and numerous raffles. 

 

The Kannes sponsor 10 youth from the five-state area.

 

“They are all very successful archers and travel all over the U.S. to shoot in tournaments,” said Kari. 

 

Kari and Dave said they received a call from a man (Jim Rau) involved with the Big Brother program. Rau told them of a young boy (Davante Moore) that Rau spends time with who was in an archery program but did not have his own equipment. 

 

“We reached out to many others in the archery community,” said Kari. 

 

The boy, Davonte Moore, was gifted a personalized compound bow set to the surprise of the young boy. 

 

“Everything was fully donated and we were able to surprise him during our shoot and present him with the set up just for him,” said Kari. 

 

All the Kanne’s proceeds from the event go to youth archers and this country’s  military service people. 

 

Kari also noted her husband David had not shot a perfect score of 300 since the loss of their son four years ago. During this year’s tournament, David  used Erich's old competition bow and shot the perfect 300 and took second place in his bow hunter class. 

 

A special thanks also goes out to the Kannes’ archery friends of Jim & Tiffany Philp, Eric Nathe, Shane Rosby, Chad Levos, Dylan & Ed Church and many more. 

 

The Kannes’ next event is July 3. Rockie Lynne, a country music star and founder of the "Tribute To The Troops" foundation, will be performing a concert at the Kanne’s home in Elk River. Kari says 300 tickets will be sold prior to the event and 50 will be made available at the door.  

 

Go to www.ejkmemorialfoundation.com for more information.