Eleven West Holt FFA Students Earn State FFA Degree

 

The West Holt FFA Chapter traveled to the 2007 State FFA Convention in Lincoln on March 28-30 with 47 members. Chapter members completed in Leadership Skills Events, Career Development Events, Proficiency Awards and received Chapter and individual awards.

 

The convention was highlighted with 11 West Holt members earning their State FFA Degree and the Nursery and Landscape team finishing as State Champion. West Holt also had a Gold rating on its National Chapter Application, based on Chapter activities throughout the past year.

 

The State FFA Degree is the highest honor presented to members by the state association and is based on the member’s leadership involvement and supervised agricultural experience program. West Holt had 12 Degree winners in 1980. This year’s State FFA Degree winners were Brian Flannery, Mary Frerichs, Matthew Frickel, Ryan Frickel, Tricia Hysell, Kevin Leininger, Trisha Marcellus, Riley Ohde, Dustin Oligmueller, Kylee Slaymaker and Isaac Welborn.

 

Career Development Events are competitions that test FFA members’ skills and knowledge in specific agricultural areas. This year West Holt competed in 9 events, finishing in the top 10 in 6 areas.
Leading the pack was the West Holt Nursery and Landscape team, who qualified to compete at the National competition next October in Indianapolis as the Nebraska State Champion. Rachel Frickel topped all competitors in the state and finished as the individual State Champion, with teammate Matt Rentschler close behind at 5th place. Meg Miller and Ashley Sindelar rounded out the winning team and both earned red ribbons.

 

Each of the four members of the winning team earned $1,000 scholarship to the college of their choice from the Stihl Corporation; Rachel earned an additional $500 scholarship from the University of Nebraska’s College of Agriculture and Natural Resources as the State Champion. West Holt was also the State Nursery and Landscape Champion in 2006.

 

Finishing 3rd in the State was the Agronomy team of Matthew Frickel (8th Purple ribbon), Matt Marcellus (Blue ribbon), Adam Flannery (Red ribbon), and Tad Judge (White ribbon). The Food Science team earned 4th place honors and included Kim Rentschler (4th Purple), Brian Flannery (White) and Shalee Weber (White).

 

Placing 6th in the AgriScience events were Amy Thomassen (9th Purple), Shelby Adair (13th Purple), Nick Schrunk (17th Purple) and Nicholas Meusch (Blue).

 

Members of the 8th place Natural Resources team were Casey Seger (14th Purple), Talia Norton (Blue), Alyssa Claussen (Blue) and Jon Gotschall (White). West Holt’s Agricultural Mechanics team finished in 10th place, members were Lee Woita (Red), Cody Breiner (White), Brock Lange and Brett Prothman.
Competing in Floriculture and finishing 20th were Ashton Ohde, Cary Ryan, Jenny Leisy and Riley Ohde. Jon Gotschall earned a purple ribbon with 4th place in Senior Livestock Judging along with teammates Laura Kohle (Red), Caleb Jochem and Talia Norton; the team earned a red ribbon.
In Junior Livestock Judging Amelia Shane finished 10th, other junior team members were Grant Garwood, Kayli Cornemann and Malissa Meyer.

 

West Holt was lead in the Leadership Skills Events by Beth Olson in the Junior Public Speaking Event where she earned a trip to the final round and finished with a 3rd place Gold medal. Brian Flannery received a Gold medal in Extemporaneous Speaking and Tricia Hysell a Bronze medal in Natural Resources Speaking.

 

The Junior Parliamentary Procedure team earned a Silver Award, team members were Jessica Welsh, Kim Norton, Cary Ryan, Amelia Shane, Ashton Ohde, Kelly Kohle, Beth Olson and Kelsey Butterfield. The Senior Parliamentary Law team received a Bronze Award and included Brian Flannery, Mary Frerichs, Kylee Slaymaker, Trisha Marcellus, Kevin Leininger and Isaac Welborn.

 

Proficiency Awards are based on a member’s supervised agricultural experience program and members can continue to compete up to one year out of high school. 2006 West Holt graduate Kirk Peterson was named the state winner in the Grain Production - Placement category. Kirk’s application will move on to compete against other state winners for the national proficiency competition. Kirk was the winner in the Forage Production area in 2006.

 

Other Chapter members earning State awards for their proficiencies were Mary Frerichs, Silver Beef Production - Placement; Casey Seger, Silver Swine Production - Placement and Matt Rentschler, Bronze Agricultural Sales - Placement.