All Eyes On: Carroll Walker

Bullseye.

That's generally what national archery champion Carroll Walker hits when he raises his bow, although he holds it a little differently than his competitors. Walker pulls back the shooting string with his teeth — he only has one arm.

Walker, the Novinger High School special education teacher, was working on his farm more than 30 years ago when an accident changed his life. He and his father were about to return a borrowed auger, a drilling tool, when it hit a highline wire and sent 7,200 volts of electricity into Walker's body, resulting in burns across his torso and legs and damaged muscle throughout his arms. Walker turned 28 during his 69-day hospital stay, in which he received 72 pints of blood, muscle debridement, skin-grafting surgeries and, ultimately, the amputation of his right arm. Walker said his faith in God helped him through the ordeal.

"You know, you sit there and say ‘Why me?' But why not me?" he said. "Who better, you know? It took my right arm, but I always have been left-handed, so I didn't have to learn to write or anything over."

In the midst of these changes, Walker remained an archer. He had been hunting with a bow and arrow for about two years before the accident, which could have ended his career. However, a friend told him about a man in Des Moines, Iowa, who shot with his teeth, and Walker visited him to learn his techniques. At first it strained his jaw and neck, but he became used to it.

Walker entered his first tournament using this unusual shooting style and came in last, but three years later, he was the state champion.

"I worked hard at it," he said. "I built a range on my farm and I was out there morning and night, practicing."

With this dedication, Walker turned his hobby into a passion. He has won six national championships and went to the Paralympics in Barcelona in 1992, an experience he said he'll never forget.

"I remember one day out practicing, the Japanese team were also out there, their coach, after I get done and come back, he comes over and does his little bow," Walker said. "'You shoot very good,' and says ‘If you from Japan, you be national hero,' so I thought that was pretty cool."

But Walker isn't in it for the praise or the championships: It's the people that keep him coming back to archery. Archery is just a bonus that comes with the friendships, he said. He even helped another man from Indiana who had been in an accident and wanted to learn to shoot with his teeth.

Today, Walker teaches special education at Novinger High School, something he's done for the past 11 years. Originally a business teacher, Walker was substitute teaching when the former teacher left, and agreed to teach for the rest of the year. To him, teaching is a rewarding experience.

"Everybody has a different way of learning," he said. "Some may be slower, some may need it repeated, whatever, but everybody can learn. And it makes my day when I can see that ‘Oh, I get it,' when the light bulb goes on I understand that and that's why it's special for me."

Carol Salsberry, a teacher's aide at Novinger High School, said Walker cares for all of his students and always gives 110 percent. Many of his students, she said, forget about his disability, but he reminds them with his humor.

"He's always bringing something funny into his disability," she said. "He'll always joke about it and the kids are sitting there, real serious."

Walker and his wife Marilyn have been married for 41 years, during which time Marilyn said she watched him, "a gentle teddy bear," bounce back from the accident faster than expected.

"He was able to pick up and go on," she said. "He took it really well and adjusted really well."

(Additional reporting by Nathan Vickers)