By Shelley Bennett
Lassen High School FFA (Future Farmers Association) has a proud tradition of being competitive, state and nationwide, and not even Covid can stop that. According to teacher and coach, Liz Ammon it has just impacted the travel aspect of their program and the “rest is still going full swing!”
FFA teams are practicing 2-3 days a week on their CDE (Career Development Event), present items by ZOOM on their competition day, and in some cases mail their projects to the contest site ahead of time. The Parli Pro team hasn’t been able to compete in their debate rounds yet, because as Mrs. Ammon says, “it’s tough one to perfect virtually.”
The club is also going strong with in-person meetings when allowed, ZOOM with trivia and other activities to encourage participation, their annual drive-thru dinner, and bell ringing for the Salvation Army during the holidays. Mrs. Ammon feels “blessed for what we are able to do.”
Last weekend 33 students competed in the Virtual Arbuckle Field Day under the direction of coaches Liz Ammon (prepared public speaking, advanced parli pro, and vet science), Mike Somerville (ag mechanics), Alex Whitney (creed, job interview, and novice parli pro), Holly Egan (veg crops and floral), and Sandy Fortin (forestry).
Students praised their coaches for making it a fun day by providing breakfast, lunch, and time to bond as a team.
Senior Waylon Miller has been in FFA for four years. He has competed in the Career Development contest and says that he imagined that this year would be spent “traveling all over California competing and making it to the state finals in San Luis Obispo.” And while the “contests themselves had to change in order to be online” he is “very thankful to continue to compete.”
Kaelee Taylor, another senior, has been competing on the Vegetable Crop team for three years. She says that “even with Covid, my team and I are still striving to place first.” at the state finals. Kaelee also imagined traveling around the state but admits “it has saved me money.” She appreciates past competitions where she was able to see things like cork trees at UC Davis and experience “a bit of life” outside of Susanville.
I am proud to say that even virtually, the Lassen High School FFA continues to be a force in the state. Here are the results from last weekend’s field day:
The Veg Crop team was second high team out of 17 teams with the previously mentioned Kaelee Taylor 4th high individual and Waylon Miller 5th. Kahlen Somerville was 4th out of 87 in Creed Speaking. Forestry was first high team with Ethan German as high individual, Aidan Adams 2nd, and Ethan Shaw 4th. Vet Science was fourth of 35 teams. Floral tied for first with Taylore Somerville 2nd high individual. They are still waiting on Ag Mech results.
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