TSDA is thrilled to have the following judges for our 2019 Finals.

Angie Coker-Sells
Tecumseh, Oklahoma
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Angie Coker-Sells was raised on a cattle ranch in central Oklahoma, she is a graduate of Oklahoma State University with a Bachelors Degree in Animal Science.   She and her husband, Scott, have a daughter, Kyann.  They raise commercial Brangus cattle, Dorper cross sheep and Boer cross goats at their Sand Rock Ranch in Tecumseh, Oklahoma.

​Over the years Angie has trained Border Collies for customers from coast to coast, many of these dogs have gone on to be successful trial dogs. 

In 1997 Angie won the USBCHA National Nursery Championship with Sam. The very next year she returned to win it again with Jen in addition to capturing the USBCHA Reserve National Open Championship with Sweep that same year.   In 1999 she won the prestigious Meeker Classic with Sweep who was also the 1998 Reserve Meeker Classic Champion.  2000 was a special year, where she won both the USBCHA National Open Championship with Sam and the USBCHA Reserve National Open Championship with Sweep.

Angie has been judging since 1997 and was the first U.S. woman to judge the USBCHA/ABCA National Finals. In 2008 she became the first U.S. judge to judge the Meeker Classic.

Angie's main focus today is training dogs for the public, working on their ranch and spending time with her family.   

Joni Tietjen
Clearmont, Wyoming​

Joni and her husband Blake live on a ranch in Clearmont WY where they run several hundred mother cows along with 400+ yearlings. She primarily uses her dogs for ranch work with a secondary use in trialing competitively.
 
Joni has been training and trialing border collies since the mid-90s and has been a consistent top finisher in trials throughout the US and Canada. She and Ben were the 2016 USBCHA National Nursery Champion in Carbondale CO.  Then in Middleburg VA, Joni and Ben repeated that feat by winning the 2017 USBCHA National Nursery Champion, Ben being the first dog to ever win two National Nursery Champions. At the same 2017 National Finals, Joni and Star took 7th in the Double-lift Final, 1st in the Semi-final, and 8th overall in both Preliminary and Nursery. Joni and Star were Reserve Champion at The Meeker Classic in 2017 and Reserve Champion at Soldier Hollow in 2018.

Joni's accomplishments include placing at other prominent trials such as the Bluegrass Classic, Kingston Grass Creek Park, Zamora Hills, and Sonoma Wine Country.
  
Joni is in her 3rd year out of a four-year term as a Director of the USBCHA, and judged the National Nursery Finals, Open Semi-finals, and Double-lift Finals in 2018. 

Peter Hall
Sperryville, Virginia

Peter Hall lives on a small farm wedged against the Blue Ridge Mountains in Sperryville, Virginia.  He has raised sheep and trained sheepdogs for the past 20 years, and traveled extensively throughout North America and the UK participating in or watching sheepdog trials.  Between 2004 and 2008, he assisted the ISDS in reporting and providing other services for, as needed, the Supreme International and World trials held over that period.  Through 2014, he also authored detailed summaries of the qualifying and final rounds of the International, which subsequently appeared as photo-articles in American Border Collie and Working Border Collie magazines.  In 2017, he was involved in planning, setup and teardown for the USBCHA National Finals at Belle Grove Plantation and was Course Director for the Nursery trials.  He has judged several trials, primarily in the Northeast U.S.
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His trial dogs, off parents imported from Scotland as puppies, are home bred and trained.  In support of the breed, his farm – too small for trials – has hosted numerous clinics instructed by Jack Knox or Tom Wilson, plus fun days to give handlers with fewer resources access to sheep.  His farm has also held two or three trials on a nearby farm. 

Peter has had a long professional career providing consulting and data processing services, both domestically and internationally, to government and private clients.  Currently, he advises the State of Maryland on all proposed electric generation and transmission line cases brought before the Public Service Commission for licensing, providing expert witness testimony on matters relating to economic and socioeconomic impacts. 
He is currently President of the United States Border Collie Handlers Association, and Treasurer of the Virginia Border Collie Association.  He is also a running member and President of the Sperryville Volunteer Rescue Squad, which provides emergency services to part of Rappahannock County in Virginia.