MURFREESBORO, Tenn. – During the summer and school year, basketball “is life” for Oakland Middle eighth-grader Allie Hopkins.
But when extended weekends and school breaks come around, she’s more likely to be found in the woods with her father, Ashley.
Allie Hopkins recently won the Professional Kennel Club’s Tennessee Youth State Championship for coon hunting. She’ll be among a handful of girls competing at the PKC World Coon Hunt, set for Oct. 24 in Salem, Illinois.
Ashley Hopkins got into the sport because of his father and grandfather, and said his daughter has been in the woods with him since she was small.
“When people think of coon hunting, they think killing, but that’s not the case,” the father explained. “It’d be killing if she went out and shot something every time she went out, but coon hunting is more of a field trial. A judge goes out with a group of kids and their dogs and waits for them to track and tree a coon and they get points for it. They have an hour to tree as many as they can.”