Warren County wins national 4-H title

Warren County?s 4-H consumer decision making team, composed of Samantha Brown, Mari Katherine Webb, Drew Milligan and Matthew Hibdon, captured first place earlier this month in Denver, Colo., with a score of 1,463. The Pioneers edged a team from Minnesota by 10 points.

In addition to the team victory, Brown was the high scoring individual at the national contest. She is the daughter of Rusty Brown.

?I was shocked when I won,? said Brown. ?When I looked around the table, everybody was looking at me and they were shocked too.?

Despite her surprise, Brown said a great deal of work went into Warren County?s national championship.

?We all worked hard at practice and were confident we would place high,? Brown said.

The national competition took place Jan. 4-7. Warren County advanced to national competition after first winning a regional competition at the Tennessee State Fair in September, and then the state championship in Knoxville in October.

?It was an amazing experience to see all their hard work pay off,? said 4-H agent Jamie Harris, who coached the team. ?They practiced every week, even over Christmas vacation.?

While at the national contest, team members had to evaluate products in different categories. The items included place settings, fishing reels, gift cards, pedometers, toothpaste, and gold jewelry.

Participants were given scenarios and were required to rank each item based on price and class specifications. Members were then required to give two sets of oral reasons to defend their rankings.

?It was quite difficult in a lot of ways,? said Milligan. ?We had to memorize a bunch of terms.?

A final team activity called group think rounded out the competition. Teams were each given a situational statement and were then required to use the group decision making module to reach a team consensus. They then presented their answer to a team of judges.

The team was awarded fourth in oral reasons, third in team placings and first in the group think activity.

While in Denver, team members also enjoyed lots of snow, which proved to be a memorable experience.

?We were supposed to go snowmobiling, but a big winter storm hit and there was too much snow to go,? said Milligan. ?It?s probably more snow than I?ll ever see in Tennessee.?