After an off day at districts where the McDonald County High School poultry team just managed to qualify for the state tournament, the four all-girl team rebounded in high style, winning the state poultry career development event over 47 other judging teams.
The competition was held during the state FFA convention on April 21 in Columbia.
Winning team members are Mylinda Dreyer, Hannah Sherman, Abby Bishop and Madison Mitchell. Dreyer was named top individual in the competition, Sherman placed fourth, Bishop placed ninth and Mitchell placed 49th out of 182 participants. McDonald County advisers are Robert Hall, Eric Roller and Emily Hutton. Roller served as the team's coach.
"The girls have done very well all season," Roller said. "We hit a lull right before state where we had a rough day or two, but they bounced right back. I told them in the two weeks before districts and state if they didn't end up hating me, I would be shocked. I worked them pretty hard. They were here before 7 a.m. two or three times a week for several months and between districts and state they came in a lot before school and stayed late. They came in on the four-day weekends and really put in a lot of time and effort."
McDonald County qualified for state with an eighth place finish at districts, taking the next to last qualifying spot.
Roller said the team included two other members until districts, when only four members are allowed per team.
"Ragan Bradley and Aubrey Dunn did a great job this year and could have been in the mix with these four," Roller said. "That competition helped make all six of them better. The job they did in helping these girls get where they are is phenomenal."
Poultry teams evaluate, identify and present their findings on live production hens, ready-to-cook turkeys, processed poultry products, cartons of eggs and broiler parts. A multiple-choice test and a problem-solving section on poultry management and production are included in the scoring.
Each team member has their own strengths and weaknesses, but Mitchell has a unique problem for a member of a poultry team -- she is scared of chickens.
"The hardest part for me is judging the live birds because I am scared of chickens," Mitchell said. "You have to reach in the cage and hold them and I don't like that at all."
Dreyer is new not only to McDonald County, but also to FFA. She transferred to MCHS for her senior year from Marcus, Iowa.
"We didn't have a big FFA chapter where I am from and no one did it," Dreyer said. "Mr. Roller said 'you should do this' and I said 'OK.'"
The girls had various reactions when they found out they were the winning team.
"I can't describe how great it felt," Sherman said. "It was so exciting. I never thought I would go to the national convention. I never thought we would make it this far."
"I was really proud of everyone and all their hard work," Dreyer said. "We actually had everything we needed to win state and that was great."
"Mr. Roller always reminded us we had the potential to do it and I thought he was nuts," Mitchell said. "I thought we would do well, but I never thought in a million years we could have won. When we found out we had won, I had never been so happy in my entire life."
"It was just overwhelming," Bishop said. "I thought 'how is this possible?'"
The state title qualifies the team for the national competition which will be held in October in Indianapolis, Ind., meaning the seniors (Dreyer and Sherman) will have to come back after they graduate this month in order to compete during the next school year.
Sponsored by University of Missouri College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources, the state championship is one way the FFA prepares student members for career success.
Community on 05/05/2016