By Makala Finley| Photo Courtesy David Masters, Flickr Creative Commons
Amongst the success of sports teams, academic teams and spirit teams many forget about other extracurricular teams. On April 16, the Wool Judging Team, coached by Mike Wallace headed to the State Competition knowing that in order to move on they would have to place first or second against the 51 other teams from all across the state of Texas.
They did just that with a first place win at state, and now they’re headed to Sonora, Texas in June for the National FFA Convention. The team members heading to nationals are seniors Dallas Campbell, Kelly Hazlett, Tasha Womack, and Savina Robles. Two of the team members had personal successes with Womack placing in the top 10 and Hazlett receiving the honor of high-point champion. Hazlett won a belt buckle which brought her total belt buckles won in wool to three and a $750 scholarship to Texas Tech which brought her total scholarship revenue earned through wool to $1,000.
This is not the first time however that the AG program has sent the wool team to nationals. The wool team has gone to nationals nine years and five out of those, they won the whole thing. The team is hoping to do the same this year.
“We want to regain our title for sure,” coach Mike Wallace said.
This season has proven that the girls are a force to be reckoned with. They won at two of the biggest livestock shows, Houston and San Antonio and they’ve done well at other smaller shows. At the state competition they only had one goal and that was to qualify for the National FFA Competition.
“I’m very proud of the girls; they worked very hard and our goal was to place first or second and we did that,” Wallace said.
The year has brought experience to the competitors, and with a team consisting of mostly seniors, memories were made as they trucked all over Texas to compete in a competition not known by many.
“This year has taught me that with practice and hard-work you can accomplish anything. I’ve been doing this two years and I’ve gotten first place at contests like Houston and the state competition at Tech,” Hazlett said. “It’s been a great year with experience gained and many memories made.