By Evan Shertzer –
There is no I in team.
Penn Manor’s FFA sent two teams March 2 to the regional competitions at Lampeter-Strasburg High School. The two events that Penn Manor participated in were the Mechanic’s Competition and Dairy Food’s Competition. The teams had different contests they competed in at the event.
The Mechanic’s team consisted of four students, Scott Appel, Ben Groff, Adam Campbell and Collin Koser. The Dairy Food’s team consisted of five students, Darren Pickel, Devin Pickel, Hunter McVey, Aaron Breneman and Andrew Rohrer. Both teams practiced hard during after school hours and stayed after multiple days to try and learn as much as they could for the competition.
“The Mechanic’s team had multiple challenges in the contest,” said Amanda Stoltzfus, an Ag Dept. teacher, “like the plumbing, welding, electrical, tractor, and harvest crib practicums.”
At the end of the competition, Appel felt very good about how the Mechanic’s team did.
“We did excellent I feel,” Appel said. “We worked together and to the best of our ability.”
Appel also had a good learning experience at the competition.
“We got to learn various things like how to put spark plugs on an engine and how to work as a team,” said Appel.
Groff also shared the same enthusiasm as Appel on how they performed.
“I think I did okay,” said Groff. “I had fun, but we need more practice.”
The Dairy Food’s team also participated in multiple challenges at the event.
“The Dairy Food’s team had cheese ID and testing,” Stoltzfus said.”They had to ID off-flavors and milk by smelling and tasting. They also had to ID milker parts for a cow milker and take a written test.”
Pickel was very pleased on the Dairy Food’s team performance at the event as well and also had a good time at the competition.
“It was pretty fun and we placed fourth. We are good at cheese’s now that we have practiced,” Pickel said. “Milk tasting was disgusting though.”
The Mechanic’s and Dairy Food’s teams both placed fourth at the competition and are moving on to the next round.
“Both teams will be practicing their skills and enhancing their knowledge in their subjects for a competition at Penn State this summer,” Stoltzfus said.
The next competition is at Penn State and will be occurring June 13-16 this summer.