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(07/02/25) BATON ROUGE, La. — For the third year in a row, members of the Louisiana 4-H Shooting Sports Team are reigning national champions after defeating competitors from across the United States.
The team has placed first in five out of the past six national competitions, including 2019, 2021, 2023, and 2024 with a second-place finish in 2022 and the 2020 event being canceled due to COVID restrictions.
Held June 22 to 27 in Grand Island, Nebraska, this year’s event involved 742 4-H youths between the ages of 14 and 18. Contestants came from 40 states, and Louisiana sent 36 participants and nine coaches to the competition. The Louisiana contestants were broken into nine teams, each focusing on a different discipline.
The nine discipline areas included air pistol, air rifle, compound archery, hunting skills, muzzle loading, recurve archery, shotgun, small-bore pistol and small-bore rifle.
The Louisiana delegation placed first overall, which is a sweepstakes award comprised of how the nine teams from a respective state placed.
4-H youth development instructor David Boldt said he was overwhelmingly proud of the team’s accomplishments and stressed how impressive it is to win the overall competition as many times as the Louisiana delegation has.
“All nine teams finished in the top 5 overall. That means all nine teams were on stage for the final awards ceremony,” Boldt said. “I can honestly say for me personally that seeing all 36 participants walk across the stage on the final day is the highlight of my working career.”
According to Boldt, one team finished in first place, three teams finished second, two teams finished third, one team finished fourth and two teams finished fifth. Overall, all nine of the Louisiana 4-H teams finished in the top five of their respective events.
The category in which the Bayou State team took home the top prize was hunting skills.
“It was another great year,” Boldt said. “Our kids, coaches and volunteers have taken this program to an unbelievable level.”
Two individuals placed first, and 11 out of 36 Louisiana participants placed in the top 10 individually. The two first-place finishers were Coben Trosclair from Terrebonne Parish in hunting skills and Jorja Litwiler from Bossier Parish in the small-bore pistol category.
Team Louisiana took home the 2025 National 4-H Shooting Sports Championship. This is the fifth time the team has won the title since 2019. Photo provided by David Boldt/LSU AgCenter
