Douglass becomes first 2-time winner of Supreme Master Showmanship

BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS

Sports Editor, RTC

Madi Douglass won the Supreme Master Showmanship Contest at the Fulton County 4-H Fair Thursday.

Madisyn Douglass became the first two-time winner of the Supreme Master Showmanship Contest at the Fulton County 4-H Fair Thursday.

Douglass, who is in her ninth year in 4-H and who will be a senior at Caston in the fall, also won the Contest in 2024.

McKinley Burton was the Reserve champion.

To be eligible, a contestant had to win Master Showman for their animal. Douglass won for both swine and goats earlier in the week. She was the only contestant that won Master Showman for two different animals during the fair.

“All things considered, since I won, I’d say well,” Douglass said when asked to assess her own performance. “But I don’t know. It's so hard to say because it’s the best showman in the county, and so it’s just really exciting.”

Contestants then had to show, in order, a dairy cow, a sheep, a beef cow, a pig and a goat. All contestants were unfamiliar with their animals. Complicating things further, contestants had to switch pigs right in the middle of the swine portion of the contest.

Douglass said the No. 1 skill in showmanship is “staying calm and collected.”

“Because animals can always sense if you’re jittery, they’re going to be jittery,” Douglass said. “So the calmer you are, the better you’ll be.”

Douglass was asked which animals were the most obedient and which animals were the least obedient.

“I’m a pig girl, so the most obedient for me was the pigs,” Douglass said. “And honestly, I would say that my beef did pretty well for me. My least obedient was probably my little goat at the end. He just kept wanting to jump around everywhere. And then my sheep were pretty jittery too.”

Douglass said the key is to narrow one’s focus and not try to keep track if you are winning.

“You kind of have a feel, but at the same time, you can’t see any of the other kids really because you’re focused on your animal and the judge,” Douglass said. “So you don’t really see how other kids are doing, and you just know everybody’s good, so you never want to count anybody out.”

Besides Burton, other competitors included Emmalie Grossman, Jace Rentschler and Terry Rock Luhnow.

Douglass, who plays volleyball, basketball and track at Caston and is one of 18 student-athletes statewide who is a member of the IHSAA Student Advisory Committee, is also focused on her health. She is rehabbing a torn right ACL suffered at an AAU basketball tournament April 4.

She scored her 1,000th career point in a season-ending loss to Pioneer in the sectional semifinals in February, becoming the fourth player in school history to reach that milestone.

Volleyball has been ruled out for the fall, but basketball is in her sights.

“Knee’s doing great,” Douglass said. “I go back to the doctor in a week or so, and he told me would clear me to jump and run, which is great news. So we’re still shooting for six months and not missing a beat in basketball.”

Douglass is the daughter of Josh and Tiffany Douglass of Twelve Mile.