Anthony (Tony) Warden
Anthony “Tony” Patrick Warden (born March 21, 1961) is a Canadian Professional Archer, Bowhunter, Outdoorsman and Certified Financial Planner. He has won in excess of 500 tournaments and has travelled worldwide with his wife Patricia representing his country and sponsors.
Early Life
Warden was born and raised in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. He was the youngest of 7 children born to Anthony (Sr.) and Vicky Ann Warden. They lived on a farm in South Windsor where Warden learned the value of being a hard worker and an honest business man. Anthony Sr. was a world class archer in his own right and started all his children shooting at an early age. Anthony Jr. was given his first bow and arrow set on his 3rd birthday.
1968 – 1979 Early Shooting Career
Warden won his first International tournament as a junior archer at the Detroit/Windsor International Freedom Festival Tournament in July of 1968. At 7 years old, he competed against archers up to 15 years old and walked away with his first gold medal.
In 1972 at age 12 Warden won the Junior Olympic Archery Development (JOAD) Ontario Indoor Championship competing against archers up to 15 years old.
Warden also held the title of top Junior archer in his local club The Windsor Bowmen from the time he started in September of 1968 until he moved to the intermediate division at age 16 when he became the top intermediate archer in his club. In 1978, at age 17, Warden won the Intermediate Division of the Outdoor Southwest Ontario Regional Archery Championship and was invited to the Province of Ontario Championships but was unable to attend due to his work schedule on the family farm.
1979 – 1985 Adult Shooting Career – amateur
Warden continued shooting locally for the next two years and during the spring of 1979, started dating Patricia Black, a new archer and Warden’s student at the Windsor Bowmen Club. From that time on, the two – to this date – are inseparable. During this timeframe, Warden and Black toured all over the world representing their country on Team Canada. During this time, Pat was ranked as one of the top 3 archers in the World and Warden was ranked #1. They were recipients of the Achievement Award for the Province of Ontario. In 1982 Warden was given the Ontario Championship Certificate and received the Certificate of Merit from the Government of Canada for his contributions to amateur sports. They both became certified archery coaches in 1983. Warden won the CFAA Outdoor Archery Championships in 1983 and 1984 as well as the CFAA Indoor Archery Championship in 1984.
The pinnacle of Warden’s shooting career came in 1984 when he won the IFAA World Indoor Championships shooting 3 perfect scores while Pat placed 2nd in the Ladies division. In his final tournament as an amateur archer, Warden won the Canadian Inter-Colligate Championship for his alma mater St. Clair College in Windsor, Ontario and broke the Sr. Men’s record by 12 points.
1985 – 1990 – 1st Professional Archery Career
In 1985 Warden made the change from amateur to professional and signed the first of many contracts with a major U.S. archery sponsor Hoyt USA. Warden continued to dominate the Canadian field archery scene winning both the CFAA indoor and outdoor championships in the Professional freestyle or freestyle limited division from 1985 through 1990 as well as his second IFAA World Indoor Championship in 1986. At this tournament, Warden established 2 World Records. The first person to ever score a perfect 900 out of 900 in the Professional Men’s Freestyle Limited Division and shooting 171 out of a possible 180 “X” (inter bullseye) ring. With this win, Warden became one of only a select few archers in the world who have managed to win world titles in 2 separate adult divisions.
In June of 1986, Warden and Black married and are still together today. For their honeymoon they had planned a 5-week vacation in August that would encompass shooting the IFAA World Outdoor Archery Championships in Blair Athol, Scotland. Unfortunately, one week after their marriage Warden was involved in a serious automobile (it was the other persons fault) accident that tore and dislocated Warden’s left shoulder. The newlyweds still went on the 5-week honeymoon representing Hoyt USA at various archery pro shops throughout Great Britain and Europe.
While Warden still competed locally and still participated in the Canadian championships, his shooting career slowed down due to the injury to the point where he no longer considered it his primary career. In 1989, with Pat expecting their first child (son Richard), Warden entered the Management system at K-Mart on a full-time basis and archery took 2nd place at the Canadian Indoor Field Archery Championships.
In February of 1990 Warden underwent surgery to repair the damage to his left shoulder, and while the surgery was a success, Warden still found it difficult to shoot enough to compete effectively at the World level, so he concentrated his archery endeavors to bowhunting and travelling as a representative for various archery companies.
1991 – 2005 – The CFP and Pro Archer
Due to an injury at K-Mart, Warden had to quit his career there and with the birth of their daughter Joycelyn, he and Pat decided that a new career in Financial Planning would suit Warden’s strong mathematics skills and his open and friendly personality. Not satisfied with just being a “salesman” Warden started taking the courses to become a CFP along with working full time. He completed the Chartered Financial Planners designation in June of 1996 and obtained the Certified Financial Planners designation in October of that same year.
After taking many courses on advising business people, Will and Estate Planning, Insurance and Group benefits, Warden became a Top-Tier investment adviser and Financial Planner. By 2005 Warden worked exclusively with Corporate and Executive Professionals with a minimum of $1Million of investable assets.
During this time, Warden participated in many local and regional tournaments, bow hunted and toured North America for his sponsors.
2005 to Present – 2nd Professional Archery Career
In 2005, with his Financial Planning and Investment business well established, Warden started to shoot on the Professional archery circuit again and has consistently placed in the top 10 at tournaments worldwide. He has been sponsored by some of the biggest and best archery manufacturers in the industry, namely: Hoyt, Martin Archery, PSE Archery, Ross Archery, Scorpyd Crossbows, Bushnell, Firenock LLC, Western Recreation, Zeiss Optics, Shrewd Archery Products, Last Chance Archery, BCY Bowstrings, Cater Releases, Stanislawski Releases, Robinson Outdoors, Firenock LLC, HHA Sports, Gearhead Archery as well as many non-archery related companies.
In 2012, Warden started up an Outdoor Product review blog named Wardensblog, and by August of that same year had over 1 Million views and several million comments. He also started a series of lectures for Pro Shop owners on how to build a successful business, how to make bowstrings, arrows, tune bows, marketing to crossbow shooters, etc. and toured across North America. In 2014, Warden took his lecture series to South Africa and spent a month lecturing, hunting and touring.
A second operation on his left shoulder in 2013 allowed him to start shooting full time again and is scheduled to start shooting IBO, ASA and NFAA tournaments again in 2018. Both Tony and Pat are currently Certified Level 2 Coaches with USA Archery as well as with the Ontario Association of Archers.
References[edit]
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