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Wiseman wins Grand Showman of Showmen
(by Kristy Zurbrick, Madison Editor - July 19, 2010)
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 Delanie Wiseman of London took home lots of hardware, including the Grand Showman of Showmen title, at this year's Madison County Fair.
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When Delanie Wiseman does well at a livestock show, her family celebrates by making her pay for dinner. The 15-year-old has been picking up a lot of tabs this year.
Her most recent win, Grand Showman of Showmen at the 2010 Madison County Fair, was extra special. For seven straight years, Delanie or her brother, Tucker, have made it to the Grand Showman contest in which the top showmen in eight species compete against one another for the ultimate title. The Wisemans’ specialty is sheep.
“We’ve always been in the competition, but never won it. Now, I finally did it,” said Delanie.
After the victory, she treated her family, including her sister, Reid, who placed just behind her in the qualifying round for Grand Showman, to dinner at the Red Brick Tavern in Lafayette.
Leading up to the big contest, she paid the bill at Bob Evans for winning the fair’s open and Junior Fair sheep market classes and got the tab at Phat Daddy’s Pizza, where she works, after winning the sheep showmanship title.
Delanie started showing sheep in peewee classes when she was just a tyke, following her cousins, Jordan and Hunter Shoemaker, around the Ohio show circuit. (Between the two of them, Jordan and Hunter qualified for Madison County’s Grand Showman contest three times before Delanie and her brother’s streak started.) When Delanie reached the age at which the circuit shows give awards, she really got hooked.
“I loved it because I was competitive. When I started placing in the top five and winning, I wanted to do more,” she said.
Delanie keeps 15 sheep in a barn at her home outside of London, as well as a few other sheep and pigs at her cousins’ place on Route 56. This year, she has performed really well on the market side of the Ohio show circuit, placing in the top five nearly every time out, often among a field of 200 other competitors. One weekend, she won $900 in prize money. She paid her mother back for the entry fees and, of course, took everyone out for a good meal.
Delanie credits her parents, Jim and Donna Wiseman, and her aunt and uncle, Denise and Tony Shoemaker, for pushing her to success this year.
“My parents are always on me to work my sheep a lot. It’s hard, but it pays off,” she said. “And even though my cousins are older and not showing anymore, my aunt and uncle still push me and help me.”
Delanie will compete in sheep and hog shows at the Ohio State Fair starting the week of July 25. She also will travel to national shows in Kansas City in October and Louisville in November.
She is a member of the Willing Workers West 4-H Club and will be a junior at London High School this fall.
In another family claim to showmanship fame, Delanie’s aunt, Darlene Laengle, won Madison County’s first-ever Grand Showman of Showmen contest. Her specialty was horses. The family keeps galloping on.
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 The full slate of 2010 Grand Showman of Showmen competitors (including their 4-H and/or FFA clubs, hometowns and the species they represented) included: (front row, from left) Kayle Mast, Eager Achievers, London, beef; Desiree Holton, Jumpers & Flyers, London, rabbits; Taylor Evans, Madison-Plains FFA, Mount Sterling, goats; Delanie Wiseman, Willing Workers West, London, sheep; (back row) Tyler Parker, Monroe Winners, Plain City, dairy; Samantha Edwards, Rough & Rowdy Ropers, Harrisburg, horses; Travis Mayabb, Helping Hands Happy Hearts, London, poultry; and Matt McCollister, Madison-Plains FFA, London, swine.
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