Cline said he has been showing steers like this one for years.

Contestants were each given one animal to show, though judges often had them swap with other competitors.

Sheep can be one of the hardest to wrangle.

Photos by Ethan Charles | Greene County News

Adam Cline poses with his winner’s plaque alongside the runners-up.

XENIA — The Greene County Fair has crowned this year’s best showman in its annual showman of showmen contest.

Adam Cline is 18 and just graduated high school, and he’s been around the fair for awhile. Cline said he started showing at the fair 14 years ago, and has been a part of 4-H since he first became eligible. Cline is part of the 4-H group Showtime.

“I’ve been doing it my whole life,” said Cline about showing animals. “I want to get into raising too.”

For the showman of showmen contest that Cline won, contestants were tasked with showing six different animals all around the fairgrounds. The group of eight showed steers, dairy cows, horses, sheep, goats, and eventually swine.

In order to qualify for the contest, participants must have already won a showman contest and sign up specifically for the event.

“I’ve been able to for the last five or six years,” said Cline. “But I never signed up.”

Cline said he originally planned to enter the contest next year — which will be his last — but family and friends convinced him otherwise.

“I guess this should be mine,” Cline’s mother, Erica Terrill, joked about Cline’s cash prize.

“I made him do it,” said Terrill. “He’s been overall hog showman twice now.”

Cline shows swine and steer regularly at the fair, and he said for this contest the pigs were easiest to show. The whole event wasn’t easy, however, as Cline did struggle with one category in particular.

“My worst show? the horse,” he said.

Apparently, Cline also got an unpleasant goat he had to work with but managed to get it under control for the judges.

The best contests are the ones surrounded with friends and family, and this rings especially true for Cline, who said he knew “pretty much everyone” he was competing alongside, including his own brother, Landen Terrill.

“My younger brother was out there,” he said. “I tried to give him pointers, he wouldn’t listen.”

Cline said going into the event, he was fairly confident.

“I was hoping it would be me,” he said. “But I didn’t know.”

Along with a cash prize and shiny plaque, this year’s winner will also receive a brand new jacket commemorating his achievement as the unofficial best showman in Greene County.

Contact Ethan Charles at 937-502-4532.