Coon dog, new owner win championship

TUSCUMBIA - Nathan Martin watched shooting stars light the Kentucky sky on a recent night as he and his dog, Tide, achieved star-like status.

Martin, 16, and Tide, a 2-year-old bluetick coonhound, defeated 92 other young hunters and their dogs from throughout the nation to win the youth division of the Professional Kennel Club's coon hunting world championship last weekend in Aurora, Ky. Martin won a $4,000 college scholarship.

Martin and his hunting buddy, Avery Allen, wished for the victory in the prestigious contest as they watched the meteorites streak across the sky.

"I saw four shooting stars the first night of the hunt, and Nathan saw four on the second night," Allen said. "We made wishes that he would win, and it happened."

Just making it to the championship event proved to be a challenge for Martin. Winning the competition was an even greater challenge.

Doc, the hound Martin spent all summer training for the competition, died suddenly two months before the contest.

"I was just heartbroken," Martin said. "I went to his pen one night to check on him, and he was dead. I'm not sure what happened. He hadn't been sick or anything. He just died."

While grieving over the loss of his dog, Martin remembered a hound he had trained for an Ohio man. When Martin asked if he could borrow the dog for the Kentucky hunt, the Ohio hunter offered to sell him the hound. Martin and his friend, Mack Singleton, of Tuscumbia, bought the dog and brought it back to the Shoals only three weeks before the Kentucky hunt.

Martin went hunting almost every night with the new dog to prepare for the world championship.

The first night of the Kentucky hunt, Martin said he wished for more time to prepare for the event. Tide did not hunt well on the opening night, and Martin feared they would be eliminated from the competition.

Despite Tide's poor showing on the first night, Martin refused to lose hope.

"I knew we still had a chance of winning if Tide hunted like he was capable of," Martin said.

On the second night, Tide was a raccoon-hunting machine and scored enough points to overcome his mistakes in the opening round, Martin said.

In coon dog competitions, the hounds are scored on how quickly they locate the scent trail of a raccoon and how quickly they tree the animal.

On the second night of the hunt, Tide was consistently one of the first among the cast of dogs he was hunting with to begin chasing and treeing the raccoons.

"Tide was awesome the second night. He did a fantastic job," Martin said.

Martin's mother, May Beth, said there were some anxious moments for her and her husband, Scott, on the second night of competition.

Scott Martin recently had back surgery, and they were unable to attend the hunt. They were keeping up with the scores from the second night of the competition on the Internet, when the play-by-play updates suddenly stopped with Tide and another hound locked in a tight battle for the lead around 3 a.m. Saturday.

"We didn't know what had happened. Then about 45 minutes to an hour later, Nathan called and said he had won. We were so excited," she said.

Martin's win has been the talk of the town around Tuscumbia, with many of his friends calling or sending notes to congratulate him.

The victory came with a price.

Before the hunt, Martin vowed to shave his head if he won. Allen and another friend, Ryan Landers, also vowed to shave their heads.

Now, all three are sporting a growth of stubble on their scalps.

"I told him if we won, I'd shave my head," Landers said.

"He won on Saturday night, and on Sunday night, I lost all my hair. I've never had a shaved head in my life."

Scott Martin said his son is an avid outdoorsman who loves hunting and fishing and goes coon hunting three to four times each week.

The sophomore at Deshler High School does not let his love of the outdoors distract from his studies, Scott Martin said.

"He's a straight-A student," Scott Martin said. "His mother and I are really proud of him."

The teen plans to use his scholarship at the University of Alabama.

"I'm a huge Alabama fan," he said. "That's why I named my dog Tide."

Martin is the second Shoals resident to win the youth coon dog championship. Hunter Jones, of Greenhill, won the competition in 2007.

Jones and Martin are friends and frequently hunt together.

Dennis Sherer can be reached at 740-5746 or dennis.sherer@TimesDaily.com.