A day at the Cass County 4-H Fair: Zeigler sisters play basketball, raise goats, sheep, pigs together

BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS

Sports Editor, RTC

Hannah, left, and Leah Zeigler

LOGANSPORT — Hannah and Leah Zeigler have a lot in common.

They are sisters. They are teammates on the girls basketball team at Pioneer. And they both showed goats at the Cass County 4-H Fair Tuesday.

Leah, who will be a junior at Pioneer, won Senior Boer Goat Showmanship and Reserve Grand Registered Boer.

She said her sister got her started raising goats. That’s in addition to the sheep, pigs and chickens that she already shows.

“My older sister had these cattle and didn’t like it, and so that was like her animal,” Leah said. “Once me and my sister got involved, we really latched on to them, I guess.”

She said boer goats were recommended by their vet.

“That’s what our vet raises, and we got them originally from our vet, and we just went with that,” Leah said.

Hannah said she likes raising boer goats because of their disposition.

“They’re really tame actually,” Hannah said. “That’s kind of why I first got into them.”

Leah called the fair “very” nerve-wracking as a year’s work comes but said she feels good with the results of the fair. Fair judges can be unpredictable.

“It’s one man’s choice on one day,” Leah said.

She was asked to describe the challenges of balancing school, sports and 4-H.

“It’s a lot of work,” Leah said. “You have a lot of late nights and early mornings to try and get stuff done, especially for the fair. My whole month of June is spent on getting prepared for the fair.”

Hannah said she spends a lot of time outside with the animals.

“We raise them, so we have them all year,” Hannah said.

In basketball, Hannah was a 5-9 post player who had to learn post moves to get off her shot against defenders who might have been as tall as she was. That same detail is critical in showing animals, she said.

Hannah is a 2026 Pioneer grad and is completing her 10th year in 4-H. She also raises sheep and pigs.

The sisters were born into a farming family. The family farm has 15 ewes, 20 does and 15 pigs.

“Well, my family has raised sheep since before I was born,” Hannah said. “Pigs, the same way. And I have two older siblings (Jacob and Kaylyn) that got it started with us.”

Hannah and Leah are the daughters of Matt and Julie Zeigler of Logansport.