DOUGLAS COUNTY —For local 4-Hers, the is about much more than rodeos and funnel cake.
It is an opportunity for club members, ages 8 to 18, to showcase skills they have been honing over the past year — and in some cases much longer — and reap the rewards of hours and hours of hard work.
Those efforts pay off for the community as well: Early competitions and events stretch the festival season well beyond its official, first-weekend-in-August dates, providing multiple weekends of free entertainment.
Just ask the 80 members of the Oakland Ok’s, a shooting-focused club that meets at the Holst family ranch near Sedalia. Practicing with shotguns, .22-caliber rifles, air pistols and bows and arrows, the Ok’s will be well represented this weekend when fair season kicks off with the Douglas County 4-H shooting competition — or County Shoot.
“I would say the best part of it to me is people of all ages, skill levels and backgrounds can come together and shoot,” 18-year-old Gigi Holst, Ok’s club president, said during recent archery practice on her family ranch. “And you can have a perfect score or put up zeros, never even hit that target, and still have just as much fun.”
Ok’s club members know a thing or two about high scores in 4-H shooting sports: Holst’s older brother, John, won the national compound bow competition held in Grand Island, Neb., in 2014, according to the club. In the , held June 21-26, fellow Ok’s and good friends Dylan Sackschewsky and Jake Pettit came in first and second place in the nation respectively in compound archery, separated by just 2 points.
“I shoot with Jake all the time, so I knew we would be close,” Sackschewsky, 17, of Castle Rock, said at practice as he worked on his shotgun skeet-shooting skills. “Nothing is guaranteed, but I knew I put in the practice enough to win.”
Sackschewsky, who has been shooting compound since he was 5 but only competing for two years, said he is looking forward to putting his skills on display again at the County Shoot.
The 16-year-old Pettit has been participating in 4-H archery for eight years, the last two with the Ok’s. He, too, said he knew he and Sackschewsky would be close, calling it “pretty cool” they finished 1 and 2. The pair will get to square off in competition again July 18 at the Highlands Ranch Law Enforcement Training Range, 6001 Ron King Trail, beginning at 9 a.m.
Pettit also will be selling his 200-pound pig, Little Girl, at the fair this year. It’s his eighth year raising swine.
Katie Nagel, the Ok’s club leader and mom to a member, said all of the club’s shooters put in hours of work learning and practicing proper safety protocols for their discipline, keeping a detailed log book of their expenses and travel and preparing display boards for the fair’s exhibition hall on top of practicing for the contest.
The County Shoot joins the 4-H dog show and the 4-H fashion show public exhibition as that are free and open to the public, Brenda Kwang, the Colorado State University 4-H agent, said.
The main fair, Aug. 6-9 at the fairgrounds, 500 Fairgrounds Drive, Castle Rock, includes the return of the popular Keifer Ranch Draft Horse Team and a barn dance on the evening of the Aug. 8, fairgrounds director Jonna Neguf-Pemberton said.
One new feature this year, according to Neguf-Pemberton, is , a touring group of trained, high-speed hogs that will be putting their skills on display all three days over fair weekend.
She added: “We’re very excited about that.”
Joe Rubino: 303-954-2953, jrubino@denverpost.com or twitter.com/RubinoJC
Douglas county fair 4-h events
Visit and click on the “Jr. Division” link at the top of the page. The master schedule is available on the right. For more information, call 720-733-6900.
