In recent years, Clinton County has been able to provide an expanded lineupof extracurricular activities for its youth in many different forms, ranging from long-time sports activities like basketball, baseball and softball, to some of the newer sports in the local lineup suchas football, soccer and archery.

Now, Clinton County’s younger population can participate in a sport with firearms.

Christy Nuetzman, Clinton County’s Extension Agent for Family and Consumer Sciences has teamed up with volunteers in the community and are now able to offer shooting sports through the 4-H program in Clinton County.

“4-H shooting sports has been around for years throughout the state and Kentucky has a really strong program in shooting sports education,” Nuetzman said. “Because we are a two-agent county, we have not put a lot of programming effort towards it in the past.”

Nuetzman said there was an interest for the shooting sports that wouldn’t go away.

“It became one of those things where we knew we needed to move forward,” Nuetzman said. “It basically came out of a very small group of people and so when it got started, we, the entire extension staff, met with Sandra Guffey with 21st Century Learning, who has provided most of the financial aspect of the program, Jeff Pharis, who is our program coordinator and Eric Mercer and Chris Marcum.”

Funding for the program initially came through 21st Century Learning which included paying for the volunteer’s certification as well as the group’s first trap. Nuetzman said the parents have also donated supplies and ammo for the group.

“The parents have really supported that part of the program and we are really thankful for that,” Nuetzman said. “It’s been a huge time commitment for the volunteers and the parents really have committed themselves to a lot of different things.”

The group first started the program by sending volunteers to get certified through 4-H in safety and other aspects of shooting sports.

“In order to do anything competitively with 4-H, any volunteers who is associated with the program as to go through the 4-H certification,” Nuetzman said. “It didn’t matter how much hunter education or shooting sports education they have had in the past, they still had to go through the 4-H certification.”

One year ago this month, several volunteers were sent to get certified in 4-H shooting sports. Pharis was certified as coordinator and Mercer went to be certified in the shotgun category.

“After we got that first group going, then the group started to expand a little bit,” Nuetzman said. “We then started the planning process and then we worked on getting the kids a practice site.”

To get started in the 4-H shooting sports, each child has to complete six hours of safety courses in order to proceed within the program.

“We didn’t formally introduce the program until after the first of the year,” Nuetzman said. “Back in February is when we had our first organizational meeting for shooting sports.”

The group started with the intent of working with kids in the sixth grade through the 12th grade, but as the interest grows, Nuetzman said they may have to expand their age requirement. Nuetzman said they might look at lowering the age requirement if there are enough students interested in the sport.

“You have to be in fourth grade to participate in shooting sports, so we are going to take off for a couple of months and then hit it hard after the first of the year,” Nuetzman said.

The shooting sports club is expanding to be able to participate in several different disciplines to accommodate different interests. Kids now can participate in shotgun competition, but volunteers are getting certified in rifle shooting and pistol shooting for possible disciplines to offer in the fall.

“We needed to know the number of youth who wanted to be involved and the different disciplines they wanted and hopefully in time, as we grow, this component of shooting sports will accompany what the school has going on with the archery program,” Nuetzman said.

The shooting club has several volunteers who are certified in different areas in order to provide a wide selection of choices for different students.

“That’s going to help us move the program forward over the next few years,” Nuetzman said. “To start a shooting sports through 4-H, you have to make sure you have the right volunteers. It was something I couldn’t take responsibility for and it was something Phil (Smith) couldn’t take responsibility for, so those volunteers have been key to the success of our program. You have to have people who are not only willing to go through all the certifications, but who are willing to schedule all of the practices, attend all the meetings, and who can help keep the program running.”

Nuetzman said there wouldn’t be a shooting sports division of 4-H in Clinton County if it wasn’t for the volunteers who have come forth and worked with the kids.

“Those volunteers are phenomenal,” Nuetzman said.

Clinton County’s shooting sports team consisted in around nine students who participated in the competition level.

The group’s first competition came last May at the Lake Cumberland area shoot in Marrowbone, KY and the team placed. Their next competition was held in Adair County where they also placed and started to get recognized in the shooting community.

“We really just felt like we would see what our interest was, get a small group of kids to start shooting and then we would just continue to build. I had no clue that we would participate in a state shooting competition our first year.”

Clinton County’s first year in the shooting circuit placed them third at the state level in September. The shoot was held in Berea, KY.

“There were five of our youth who qualified for the state competition as a team,” Nuetzman said. “It’s phenomenal to me that we have progressed in such a short time. The volunteers and the parents have totality supported this program. They have been wonderful to buy extra ammunition and supplies. It’s amazing to me that the interest has grown.”

The team placed third out of 19 teams who participated in the state level competition.

“I definitely think we have made a name for the program in the first few months,” Nuetzman said. “Over the next few weeks we will be having committee meetings to see where we are and everyone is encouraged to get involved.”