A big day for Adrian FFA!

Adrian FFA hosted a practice contest on March 8, 2019.

photo by Adrian FFA

With the ambition and leadership of an Agriculture Teacher and FFA Advisor like Ethan Romi, the Adrian FFA chapter hosted a practice contest on Friday, March 8, 2019 with over 50 schools and 1,300 students in attendance. It was a huge day for the Blackhawks! About March of every year, schools around the state host practice contests like the one at Adrian this year. Romi said, "We held 15 different contests all around the school as well as around town. All in all it was a very good contest for my first one hosting." Students competed in Career Development Events, which are based on things students have learned in their agricultural classes. A few categories included: Horse Evaluation, Floriculture, Food Science, Agronomy and others. Adrian FFA Officer Kameran Collier said about the contest/events, "I enjoyed seeing friends from neighboring schools and competing with the horse judging team."

Practice contests like the one held in Adrian are to help FFA members prepare for district, state and national contests. Romi said, "We take part in these practice contests to get ready for districts the first week of April. FFA members will compete in their contests at districts for a chance to go and compete at State Contests at the end of April. FFA in the State of Missouri is one of the most competitive in the nation. We compete at state for a chance to represent Missouri at National Contest, which is very difficult because only the winner of each CDE at the state level moves on."

Adrian students weighed in on this year's contest. FFA Officer Olivia Babgy said, "We had a great turn out for our FFA Contest. It was exciting seeing schools come from all over the state and even a few from out of state come and compete. I hope everyone had a good time and that we have just as good of an experience next time Adrian hosts a contest." Adding to that sentiment is Kameran Collier. She said, "Having the contest at Adrian helped me have a better understanding of all the work that goes into hosting a FFA contest . The contest went smoothly." Looking to next year and beyond, the Adrian FFA Contest will be on a yearly rotation with Archie. Mr. McIntire, Archie FFA Advisor, has been hosting a practice contest at Archie for the last 10 years. Romi said, "Last spring he approached me about having a chance to host one at Adrian."

Romi brings a wealth of education, experience and expertise to Adrian, which coincides with the growing Ag classes and FFA chapter. When asked about his background, Romi shared this information: "For the most part I have always known that I wanted to be a teacher but I never knew what I wanted to teach until my freshman year of high school. I received a letter in the mail from Mizzou that said that my Ag teacher had suggested me as a possible Ag teacher. Now I know it was just a letter to try and get me to go to Mizzou, but that didn’t matter. For some reason I was hooked and my FFA career took off after that. At first I just joined FFA because it looked like a lot of fun when I was younger. They would have Food For America Day and an FFA vs. Staff basketball game, It just seemed awesome. As I took Agriculture Science I my freshman year, I saw that it was a lot more than I expected. I loved the content of the class. As my high school career went on, I became more and more involved with FFA. I became an officer of the chapter and by my senior year I was serving my chapter as its President and also the Area as its Parliamentarian. I became even more hooked on the idea of being an Ag teacher and FFA Advisor when Mr. McIntire (my Ag teacher at Archie) asked me to teach a lesson to my greenhouse class over the floriculture tools. I then followed in my Ag teacher's footsteps and received my agriculture education degree from Missouri State University. In June of 2016 I bought out my contract at another school and signed on to work at Adrian. I wanted the opportunity to come back to the area and help students develop a passion for agriculture like I developed in my Ag classes. A personal goal of mine is to teach future teachers. Nothing would make me feel like I have done a good job as an Ag teacher as developing other Ag teachers."

On behalf of his Adrian FFA members, Romi extends appreciation for those who helped make this big day possible: "The Adrian Contest would not have happened without a lot of help from other Ag teachers and a lot of support from the Adrian Community."

CONTEST RESULTS

Livestock-3rd with Cameron Tallman 3rd High Individual

Horses-4th

FFA Knowledge-8th

Nursery-8th

Entomology-10th

Flowers-13th

Meats-16th

CONGRATULATIONS, BLACKHAWKS!