World Championship - Thursday Report

The fourth and final night of qualifying for the semifinals saw 351 hounds hitting the woods at dark in an d around Aurora. This would be the final opportunity to advance for the hundreds of hopefuls in this year’s edition of the world’s greatest coonhound championship – the PKC World Hunt!

A typically crisp and exhilarating fall evening provided the perfect setting for the fourth night of competition and as expected there were questions to be settled, but they were few in number considering the enormity of the prize at stake. PKC hunters are proving they are indeed professional in the way they conduct themselves in the woods and in the way they address the bumps in the road that come from time to time in competition hunting. My hat is off to the hunters for the sportsmanship shown at this year’s World Hunt.

Here are the successful hunters whose hard work and perseverance paid off with a ticket to the semifinals Friday night:

Lace
Snyder/Cramer, owner
John Strickland, handler

Floyd
Charles Dawson, owner
Johnny Brown, handler

Kate
David Ascott, owner/handler

Snag
Chris Massengill/Benny Taylor, owners
Benny Taylor, handler

Preacher
James Samples, owner/handler

Lady
Meyers/Dickerson, owner
Rusty Jones

Spot
Tim Babb, owner/handler

Sam
Edbert Jackson, owner/handler

Dot
Kyle Chase,owner/handler

Squeller
Fred Sauer, owner
Ronnie Bone, handler

Patty
Umphers/Hardin, owner
David Hardin, handler

Burk’s Little Joe
Kenny Burk, owner/handler

Crazy
Barham/Warren, owner
Chuck Barham, Jr., handler

Medley’s Hardwood Jessie
Keith Medley, owner
Robby Stout, handler

Buzz
Harvey M. Shuler, owner/handler

Liz
Morris Tart, owner/handler

Cody Jar
Henry Melton, owner
Wade Hill, handler

CH Hardwood Hank
Bobby Springs, owner/handler

CH Hillbilly Red
Gary Todd, owner/handler

SCH River Bend Redbud
George Wood, owner
Michael Webb, handler

Lagoon Creek Hanna
Jerry Brandon, owner/handler

CH Morgan’s Ohio Buster
Tom Morgan, owner/handler

GCH Lookin’ Up Jeb
Terry Bennett, owner/handler

The entry of 1500 hounds that competed at Aurora has been reduced to 24 casts hunting in the early round on Friday. Those 24 casts will in turn produce eight late round cast winners who will advance to the Final Eight , early tomorrow. The eight will run in four two-dog casts early on Saturday and those four cast winners will make up the Final Four hunting late on Saturday.

The excitement is building tremendously. As always, owners of winning pups and world semifinal contestants are being approached with offers to buy their hounds. The Junior Super Stakes winner, Tiny, owned by David Cox has already been sold for a tremendous figure. We’ll report more on that as the details become available.

Friday night is also the first night of the PKC Youth Championship and sixty-seven of the top competitors in youth competition are here competing as this is being posted. PKC Youth competition is top drawer in every way. One only needs to stop one of these young people and ask a few questions to see that they are focused, knowledgeable and totally committed to coon hunting. I always get a tremendous rush when I talk to the youth hunters each year. Their hunt will finish early Saturday night when the 2001 PKC/JOY Youth Champion will be crowned. It’s a great thrill to see the youth in their brand new jackets, accompanied by their parents and their hounds and especially to see the pride in the eyes of the parents. It’s a great program and PKC CEO Larry Meeks announced tonight that JOY has awarded more than $400 thousand dollars in scholarships to youth hunters since the program began. It is truly awesome to witness the youth championship each year at Aurora. We’ll be posting the winners as they emerge from the early rounds.

Friday night is traditionally dubbed “Exceptional Children’s Night” at the Tennis Center each year. The crowds at Aurora are treated to a stage performance by “special” children and adults from the Aurora area in what has become one of the most requested performances from a long list of performers each year at the World Hunt. The kid’s rendition of Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the U.S.A.” brought the house down tonight.

There is a tremendous crowd in the Tennis Center tonight and the mood is strictly on the “up.” We’ll be awaiting the early round casts and will try to file a late night report.

We appreciate your patience as reports are sometimes delayed by a lengthy list of activities each day at the World Hunt.

“PKC – When it Comes to Kids, It’s Certainly a Warm and Rewarding Place to Be!”