St. Martin Parish 4-H Shooting Sports participants Eric Melancon of Cecilia and Dillon Comb of Breaux Bridge recently returned from the National 4-H Shooting Sports Competition held in Grand Isle, Nebraska, from June 24-28, 2009. These youth faced three days of tough competition and shooting.
The 4-H’ers participated in the FITA, Field, and 3-D events which were part of the archery discipline. When the competition was over, Eric ended up in ninth place overall, and Dillon had finished in 23rd place overall. This is definitely something to be proud of, considering they were competing against the best of the best from all 50 states. Since the competition took place in such proximity to Omaha during the College Baseball World Series, all of the participants from Louisiana were treated to tickets to the LSU-Texas game on the Tuesday night.
During the State 4-H Shooting Sports competition in Match, four archers from St Martin Parish had qualified to compete at nationals. However, Codey Angelle of Cecilia was unable to attend this year’s event due to a 4-H national rule which states that a participant may only go to the national competition once in a given disciple. Codey was a 2007 national match participant. Robert Burkhardt, a member of the St. Martin Parish At-Large 4-H Club, also qualified for nationals but decided to wait for a possible later invitation.
Youth who participate in 4-H shooting sports continuously learn about marksmanship, the safe and responsible use of firearms, the principles of hunting and archery, and much more.