Young Parker County 4-Her doing big things

Feb. 14—WEATHERFORD — Case Wilson may be young, but he's already on his way to bigger and better things.

The Millsap seventh grader recently competed among his older peers at the Fort Worth Stock Show, taking third place and earning a blue ribbon — which signifies 90-100 points on a project — in his ag mechanic division against a large majority of high school competitors.

"I was surprised because there were a lot of good cookers out in that Fort Worth show," Wilson said.

His project came from an idea all his own, in a chuck wagon cooker modified to be a portable grill.

"I wanted to do some type of fire pit, so I went online to look at pits and stuff, and saw something called a 'cowboy cooker,'" Wilson said. "I looked at the pictures, chose different ones and basically combined them all into one. I also built all my utensils."

Parker County Extension Agent for 4-H and Youth Development Kayla Neill said Wilson's entry at a major show was easily the first for Parker County 4-H in the program's history.

The fact that he's one of the youngest competitors to come out of Parker County — which has ag mechanic powerhouse programs in Aledo, Weatherford, Brock and Peaster — makes it that much more special.

"Usually you're going to see high school students participating just because they've got a class centered around it," she said. "His work is beautiful. and when you get to the major shows, you've got to have some pretty phenomenal projects in front of you."

To add to Wilson's story, the middle-schooler didn't learn to weld until about a month before the Parker County Stock Show in June. It was his first time to show an ag mechanic project.

"My husband builds stuff, custom gates, fencing, and it wasn't anything that Case was really interested in, but he wanted to do something different besides show his cow," his mother Cortney Tidwell-Wilson said. "He's real hands-on, likes building things with Legos, and my husband showed him how to measure, how to cut — a weekend's worth of lessons on how to weld.

"Three weekends, and the project was done and shown."

Wilson said he spent three weekends, and about 48 hours, constructing his project.

"He put all the money and work into this. The only thing we gave him was some scrap we had lying around," his mother said.

In the Parker County show, Wilson took home first in junior grills, first in junior ag showmanship and grand champion in junior ag project.

"This was my first time showing ever, and we had no idea how it was going to go," he said.

At one of the judge's suggestions, Wilson decided to enter a major show, setting his sights on Fort Worth and the upcoming Rodeo Austin livestock show in March.

He also competed in a show in Waco in October, taking third place there.

"For him to compete, especially as a young person, his projects are pretty impressive," Neill said. "And he's quite the showman, too. He's what you want to see in a young person, especially for his age."

Though he's still got one more show to go with his current project, Wilson is already thinking about his next. The Millsap youth knows he wants to stay in the section of cooking, and is contemplating a smoker with a fire box.

"I want to build a smoker because at my [grandma's] house, we have a smoker we like to call 'Ugly Betty,'" he said. "We also have a smoker at our place — they're both a wreck.

"So I wanted to build a smoker to give to my father or my grandmother."

He's unsure whether he'll use his portable grill to cook on, or sell to buy materials for a new smoker. But for now, he's settled on Austin and helping his father with gate operators and fencing.