4-H SHOOTING SPORTS LEADER TRAINING AND CONTEST DEVELOPMENT
Carter,* P.G.1; Schmidt, J.21County Director and Extension Educator, Washington State University, Dayton, WA, 99328
2County Director and 4-H Youth Educator, Washington State University, Colfax, WA, 99111
Abstract:
A Washington State 4-H Shooting Sports Leader Training Program was developed in cooperation with a team of nationally certified 4-H instructors. The first 15-hour 4-H Shooting Sports training was launched in May 2001. Using the life skill evaluation as a template, a retrospective evaluation was developed to determine the effectiveness of the shooting sports leader training program. 97% of participants indicated that the training program was good or excellent and more than 90% indicated that they had the knowledge and skills to safely lead shooting sport activities for youth. As a result, several volunteers reported starting new shooting sports clubs in their county 4-H program. A State Plan was written and the program grew. The program needed an organized venue for participants to come together and vie for top honors. A method was needed to identify senior aged 4-H members (age 14 to 19) who might represent Washington State at the National 4-H Shooting Sports Invitational. In 2007, a statewide team of volunteers was formed to develop a state contest plan. The contests would be qualifiers starting at the county level. Top scorers would from the counties advance to one of the 4 Extension District contests and then the State Qualifier. The contest would follow the National Invitational model in that the top 4 scorers in each age group of each discipline would advance to the next level. In 2009, 82 4-H’s participated at the 3rd Washington State Invitational and ten 4-H’s have attended Nationals in the last 3 years.