Walton County 4-H BB Team Win 1st Place in State Championship

On Saturday, April 13, 2013, the Walton County 4-H BB team competed at the State 4-H Match at Rock Eagle 4-H center. Walton County, whose Head Coach is William Carlan, was able to qualify and send all four of its teams to the state match. The 4-H State BB Match this year consisted of 79 teams and 564 individual shooters. In order to participate in the state match, all competitors and teams had to qualify through participating in their district match, and place a preset score benchmark in order to be eligible to compete at Rock Eagle.

The Walton County Teams consisted of:

Team 1 - Daniel Peters, Matthew Wood, Matthew Pittman, Gracie Fournier, Austin Cosper, Connor Hall and Alyssa Topf

Team 2 – Ashley Stacy, Allison Patrick, Richy Cook, Lucy Peters, Ravven Fincher, Will Nord and Preecha Davis

Team 3 – Taylor Hays, Derrick Topf, Cooper Jensen, Emaleigh Cook and Logan Snyder

Team 4 -  Preston Hall, Kendrick Pratt, Jacob Lancaster, Will Landkamer and Daniel Mason

Suffice to say, Mr. Carlan, an Extension Agent with the University of Georgia’s Cooperative Extension Department had his teams primed and ready to go. The teams making the state match has become something that Walton County can take pride in since the BB teams long time coach Mr. Carlan  has prepared them to be regular participants typically in this very large event.

Mr. Carlan is assisted by Ms. Kathy Sasser who works diligently each year with the children on the BB team preparing them for the written test portion that is considered the “5^th position” at the state match. The shooting positions consist of Prone, Standing, Sitting and Kneeling, all of which are shot from a distance of 5 meters. The test covers firearm safety rules, range commands and match regulations. “The test” can either save you or be your worst nightmare in competitions such as this by easily knocking your team out of contention if you are not well prepared.

There is no doubt that these Walton County shooters were there for more than the atmosphere and a day of fun and sun. They were there with their game faces on, and these kids never looked back!!! In order for shooters to “make the stage” for a medal, teams and individuals must place in the top 10 for the competition in either the team scores or individual disciplines.

You should be proud Walton County…you were well represented. A new 1^st place overall individual State Champion and 1^st place Team Champion were both named Saturday! The official results, in order of announcement at the awards ceremony were:

Prone       

• 4^th place overall – Austin Cosper
• 5^th place overall – Lucy Peters

Standing  

• 9^th place overall – Gracie Fournier

Sitting      

• 5^th place overall – Allison Patrick

Kneeling  

• 1^st place overall – Austin Cosper (2013 State 4-H Champion)
• 3^rd place overall – Matthew Pittman (2013 State 4-H Bronze Medalist)

Overall Individual Results:

• 1^st place – Austin Cosper (2013 State 4-H Champion)
• 8^th place – Gracie Fournier

Although Walton Counties Team 2 did not quite make the stage for a medal, they shot very well during the match, by narrowly missing the Top 10 by a slim 4 points to Paulding County’s Team 1. Walton’s Team 2 ended up placing an extremely respectable 11^th place overall. Teams 3 and 4 also performed quite admirably.

Team Results: 

• 1^st place overall team – Walton County Team 1 (2013 State 4-H Champions)

You will have to stay tuned and play close attention for possibly future article because the story doesn’t end here. This very same Walton County BB Team has also qualified and earned a berth to compete at the Daisy National BB Gun Championship Match in Rogers Arkansas beginning June 28! Although the official team names have not yet been released, we are hoping that they too, will return as Champions. If you know one of these children, please be sure to congratulate them for their accomplishment. It’s much more difficult than it looks…..just ask one of them.

(Contributed by Scott Cosper)