It isn’t a shot in the dark that Steven Collins (12) is a successful archer. He is currently ranked second in the world.

Originally, the sport was just something fun for Collins. Eleven years ago, Collins’s church, South County Baptist, bought bows to begin an archery program. His instructor was an older, experienced archer named Dick Woods. Collins was 5 years old.

“I was the first in the program,” Collins said.

Collins only shot for fun until seven years ago, when he competed for the first time. Collins travelled to Columbia, MO for the Missouri Show Me State Games. He did not perform well in his first competition, but this was not a setback for Collins. He continued to practice archery and continued going to competitions, becoming more competitive and highly ranked as he went.

Despite his original intentions, Collins has been ranked second in the world in archery. Collins has competed around the world to earn his title, from Ireland to Las Vegas. While in Dublin in October for the 2016 World Archery Field Championship, he and a team of USA junior men competed against a gold medal Swedish team. Collins and the two other boys took the lead after the first three arrows, and finished 15 points above their competition.

Collins plans to turn to professional archery after high school. He shoots a compound bow, so he is not heading for the Olympics, but there isn’t a shortage of other competitions for him. Collins will compete in February at a competition in Las Vegas where he has the chance to win $100,000.

Collins also uses his talent in recreational archery, including hunting. He has even incorporated archery into his working life.

“I work at an archery shop now,” he said. “So I’m there everyday.”