Digger Cogar Considers Retirement

 

  I'm not sure of the exact date, but I believe it was in the month of May in the mid to late '90s when I learned about the Cogar family. A father and his two sons traveled around the country participating in national archery tournaments, and they were all pretty good. They were well respected, and they always held their composure, even when they hadn't performed up to their potential. They were good ol boys from West Virginia, and I became friends with them.

  I quickly learned that Digger and Mike were two of the guys to beat if I had any chance of standing on the podium at the end of the event. We would all end up in peer groups at the national triple crown and we would share sniffing leads at the halfway point or at the end of events over the years. We all had our ups and downs, but we stuck at it.

  Although I didn't know Digger's age, I knew he was pretty close to me. Then, the year I turned 50, Digger went into Senior Pro, so I knew we were both born in 1969. Although I had minimal time to shoot in my early 50s, I joined Digger in the class when I was 52. 

  Over the last handful of years, we've shared a lot of great experiences as well as a few that weren't so good. I've always found it easy to discuss the rounds with Digger because we tend to see things from the same angle most of the time. He's always been one of my favorite people with whom to shoot, and I've always respected his archery knowledge and shooting ability. I consider myself lucky to have walked with him on the path to where we currently stand. 

  That's why writing this brings a great amount of sadness. Recently, Digger has spoken of retirement due to a catastrophic moment he encountered while shooting at the Foley ASA in February. After his Day 1 round, he went for a nature walk to a nearby Adventureland Park. While walking, he wasn't paying attention to the "Beware of Alligators" sign and veered off the walkway for a few seconds. 

  Without knowing he had approached a female gator that was trying to feed her babies, it was too late when the gator lunged at him and clamped her jaws around him. Digger did everything he could to save himself further injury and narrowly escaped death. However, in doing so, he wasn't able to get his release hand and arm away in time, suffering horrible injuries to his forearm and fingers. It has taken its toll on him, and shooting the release accurately has become increasingly difficult. It also traumatized his mental abilities and made his eyes bug out of his head briefly, exploding his yardage-judging capabilities. Let's all wish Digger a speedy recovery so we can see him back on the courses if he decides he doesn't want to retire quite yet. However, if he does hang it up, I'm sure he won't be the first one who was driven away by a pesky gator found along a 3D trail.