Excitement is running high in the Cleburne High vocational agriculture wing.

Eight Cleburne FFA leadership teams will participate in Area 8 competition Saturday at Hillsboro for the right to advance to state the first week of December at Huntsville.

In winning sweepstakes last week with 103 points in the 500-student Lake Whitney District, Cleburne captured first places in junior creed, ag issues, public relations, junior skills, senior skills, radio and senior creed. Cleburne was also second in junior conducting.

Grandview was second in sweepstakes with 81 points and qualified teams for area in junior conducting, junior quiz, junior skills, senior conducting and job interview.

A dress rehearsal will be held for the Cleburne students today beginning at 4 p.m. at the vocational ag wing. Students, parents, administrators and school board members are invited.

“That will give the kids a chance to go through their paces,” said vocational ag teacher Barney McClure.

Cleburne generally fares well in district — so well, usually, that the students point higher than in district.

“We don’t measure our success just by district,” McClure said. “We measure it by how we do at area. We had three groups at state last year. We’re optimistic. We feel we have a chance to do as well as last year or even better.”

Considerable preparation goes into the speaking events.

“Some of these kids have a 20 minute presentation,” McClure said. “They have to memorize most of those things. The radio team reads a radio script over a PA system, but there are a lot of little things they have to do to make that sound good. And the ones who memorize have to make that sound natural.

“On the skills demonstration, we’ve got one group building an electric fence. They not only have to memorize the part but also put it together while they’re speaking. We have a junior group demonstrating how to wire trailer brakes and trailer lights.

“Our public relations team involves three students. They do a presentation on FFA, and this year our target audience is eighth grade orientation. Our ag issue this year is bio-fuels — is it good or bad for agriculture? It’s good if you’re raising corn because you get some government subsidies, plus the price is high. If you feed animals, the price has gone up.

“In creed speaking, they give the five paragraphs of the creed, and then they’re asked questions. We started these events by passing out script the third week of September, so we’ve been working on them for two months before and after school and some during class and Saturdays.

“It takes quite a bit of time. Memorizing doesn’t come easily to a lot of students.”

Many of the leadership students have animal projects.

“Over 100 of our students have animal projects,” McClure said. “We have kids involved in all parts. We have some who don’t do speaking and judging and who show animals.”

Among State Fair participants from Cleburne FFA, Kodie Carroll had a champion lightweight Angus steer that brought $10,000 at auction. Black showed a pen of three chickens and came away with $740. A barbecue pit, Cleburne’s ag mechanics project, won a blue ribbon and showmanship award. The team then sold the pit for $3,000.



Cleburne Area Qualifiers



Junior Conducting

Maxwell Reynolds, Conner Martyniuk, Kristi Babbitt, Pete Black, Justin Scarborough, Tanner Marchel, Blake Stroud, Tyler Newton, Nico Flores, Brock Sanders.

Junior Creed

Veronica Johnson, Kaci King.

Public Relations

Shelby Galvin, Sara Brandon, Katie Babbitt, Jordan Taylor, Laura Wilson.

Issues

Amber Blair, Kiley Beard, Mica McDonald, Kaylar Campbell, Krystal Wortham.

Radio

David Price, Kaitlyn Martin, John Longoria, Kodie Ray, Amber Blair, Joseph Snider.

Senior Skills

Taylor Berry, Donica Clepper, Logan Littlejohn, Chandler Welty, Mark McDonald, Kaleigh Mangrum.

Junior Skills

Gunter Earley, Cooper Walls, Chad White, Cody Faver, Mason Keele, Johnny Blake, David Zonka, Aaron Perez, Dustyn Ward, Chaz Aiken.

Senior Creed

Mica McDonald