Ryann Phillips grew up in a rural area where there were no bright lights to obstruct quality stargazing. Now, as a freshman student-athlete at University Tennessee Southern, she is her hometown’s favorite shooting star. And she gives a lot of credit to one of Texas’s best educational programs: 4-H.
According to the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service website (a part of the Texas A&M University System), the Texas 4-H program was founded in 1908. It is the largest youth development program in Texas, reaching more than 550,000 youth each year.
“I started 4-H when I was in 3rd grade. That's the youngest you can be to enroll in 4-H. My first shoot was in 4th grade, in Callahan County,” Ryann said.
Shooting sports fall under the Natural Resources Program of the Texas 4-H curriculum. Even though Ryann’s family has no history of participating in trap or skeet, she took to it naturally.
“When I was little, my family would often have slingshots and BB guns around, so I grew up shooting those,” she said.
From such simple beginnings have come state, national, and now international trips. Ryann has progressed far beyond her bb gun skills. Her senior year, the 2022 Borden High School graduate was awarded a scholarship from the Division I NAIA university in Pulaski, Tennessee. The school has won national championships in Clay Target shooting sports consecutively since 2016. Just last week, Ryann competed in Lima, Peru, with the 2022 USA Shooting National Team, of which she is also a member. Since collegiate clay target shooting is primarily a spring sport, Ryann being a member of the elite U.S. team allowed her to make the trip to the Championship of the Americas. Ryann’s Olympic dreams are not farfetched, and not just because of her determination and talent. Two former UTS student-athletes competed in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics in Women’s Trap and Mixed Trap. It would seem that Ryann is in the right place to keep her goals on track. “It has definitely been a challenge to balance college and shooting. However, I love being a student athlete,” Ryann said. “It allows me to get to know my team as well as others outside of my sport. The weekly practices with my shooting team allow me to get closer to them and make memories together.” For the half million Texas school students who are members of the Lone Star State’s 4-H programs, the variety of educational opportunities truly makes a difference. Food and nutrition, fashion, leadership, interior design, animal projects, and consumer education competitions are just a few of the many offerings— along with shooting sports—that children ages 5-18 have to choose from in supplementing their classroom educations.
“4-H is one of the best experiences I can recommend. For me, it has led to so many amazing opportunities that I never would have thought possible,” the 2021 Open Women's National Champion said. Besides the trips to Peru (twice), the other amazing opportunities Ryann references have included travel to Croatia and Germany. She was the silver medalist in Peru and a finalist in Croatia.
Characteristically, Ryann’s old soul demeanor is reflected in her young perspective.
“The rewards are not just the medals or the recognition from those medals. I really have enjoyed making friends internationally. It's amazing how different their lives are but how similar they can be as people.”
When looking at the night sky, most shooting stars blaze across the sky and appear to be falling to earth.
Ryann Phillips’s trajectory is upward and onward, a bright light from a small town taking advantage of a stellar educational program.
Snyder, Texas, native Sue Jane Sullivan is a retired schoolteacher whose thoughtprovoking commentary appears occasionally in several West texas newspapers, including The Texas Spur and The Caprock Courier.
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