Postby Shannon Stafford » Mon Jun 01, 2020 7:43 am
First I want to congratulate Anna on winning the championship. That was by far her biggest win to date. Even though she had to sweat it out till the end of the cast because they had 2 more trees to score, she was so proud of her dog for hitting the tree first on a coon and making the call ahead of her brother as the dog he was hunting loaded up right behind hers. Anna and Daniel have hunted against each other a few times on youth casts but not once had she won a cast he was on. I also want to congratulate Laret, Spin’er, and Daniel on their wins throughout the series to make the final cast. I have personally been in the woods with all 4 of these youth hunters and it’s always a pleasure to watch them and see how they conduct themselves as competitors. They may ask questions throughout the cast but once it’s done, it’s done. Also I want to congratulate the 4 cast winners of the open event. You had a couple of young pros and a couple beginners in that final 4 split. I had the privilege of being able to walk with the youngest cast of the 4. After time was up and congratulations were giving three of us stayed with the kids while dogs were being collected and I’ll tell you what I saw did my heart good. Those 3 kids didn’t have to deal with us adults or worry about dogs anymore. They found their way to each other standing off to the side having their own little ramblings of a conversation. At that moment I thought, they are truly better people than we are. There was no winning or losing, there was no arguing, they didn’t care what we were talking about, they were just 3 little individuals. We as parents and mentors need to pay attention to them because we could actually learn a lot more from them than we try to teach them. At that age they are still innocent and impressionable. They are the future of this sport so we as adults need to guide them along, teaching them the right way to not only be good competitors but to be good people. Even in the coonhunting world we need to put our youth first and let them be the best legacy we leave behind.
Last edited by
Shannon Stafford on Mon Jun 01, 2020 7:51 am, edited 1 time in total.
