Poultry showmen line up, waiting for their turn to be judged.
Photos by Scott Halasz | Greene County News
Gracie Norris was all smiles after finishing fourth in the senior division of the poultry showmanship. A first-time showman, she was supposed to be in the novice class but slipped through the cracks and still placed.
The judge tests the knowledge of a 4-H member.
After each class, the judge gathered all the 4-H kids and gave a brief lesson.
XENIA — Gracie Norris wasn’t quite sure how to enter her name into the poultry showmanship.
“So I just put my name in all the slots,” the 19-year-old and first-year 4-H members said. “And they said, ‘Oh, you need to be in the senior class.’ I was like Oh, boy. OK. Grabbed my turkey and got out there.”
Easy enough, right?
Wrong.
As a first-time showman, regardless of age, Norris should have been in the novice division. But that fact slipped through the cracks.
Turns out, the 2022 Xenia High School graduate did fine in the ring with the more-experienced showmen. She finished fourth out of 16 showmen.
“It was a little nerve wracking because you’re like, “Whew, there’s all these professional (poultry) wranglers in here.’ But it went really well. The judge asked me a lot of questions. Some of them I didn’t know the answer to but I just answered it the best as I could.”
Making it even more difficult was that Norris was away for the summer working for the Ohio FFA and had one week to work with her turkey, Marvin.
“I’m just blown away,” she said. “I just went in there just expecting to have fun and if I didn’t win anything, then oh well. And I was very surprised to get called and got told I got fourth. I’m surer happy about it. It was a lot of fun.”
Norris credited the Casey family of Xenia for taking care of Marvin and encouraging her to show the bird.
— Karissa Allen won the senior division, followed by Tayla Green, Whitney Boggs, Norris, and Cassidy Brown.
— Odessa Hughes won the intermediate class, followed by Ava Martin, Owen McDufford, Kendal Bertelson, and Cheyanne Adams.
— James Robbins won the junior class, followed by Liam Sharrett, Cole Britton, Samuel Katter, and Logan Eavers.
Reach Scott Halasz at 937-502-4507.
