National FFA
Continued from page 5
had engaged in dairy cattle judging through 4-H for years.
All of that hard work and dedication came to a head at the national convention. The team of four competed over two days, taking on the individual activities on the first day before coming together for the team activity on the second day.
While the girls had experienced high levels of competition at the state level in Madison, the aura of the national convention still drew awe and nerves alike.
“It was definitely different,” Raatz said of the experience. “We were all in our official dress, in our blue jackets, and just looking at everybody and realizing, ‘oh it’s not just by city in Wisconsin, it’s by state.’ So seeing teams from Minnesota, Florida and even Puerto Rico were there; that was an eye-opener.”
“I told the girls on the way down, ‘you guys are the only ones from the state, this is a big deal,’ and I think [when they realized that], that was pretty cool for them too,” Rogowski noted.
“It was a bit more stressful too,” Ertl added. “It was like ‘oh my gosh, this is the last time I’m going to be doing this’ and that it was our last time together as a team.”
The fact that this was indeed going to be the final time the four would be able to compete in this event together was certainly not lost on them. That they were able to make it to the national stage together in their final opportunity made the trip all the better.
After all was said and done, the team placed 10th overall, with Zawislan taking 25th, Raatz 36th, Heeg 48th and Ertl 124th as individuals. Zawislan, Raatz and Heeg earned gold rankings and Ertl grabbed a bronze ranking while the team as a whole earned a gold ranking.
“I was so proud,” Raatz said. “I was like ‘we finally did it.’ My goal was top 10 for us and during the awards banquet, seeing our name up on the screen in 10th place was like ‘we finally did it.’” “It was pretty cool,” Ertl said. “I feel like sometimes I bring the team down, because I’m the lowest one, but also it’s like, I didn’t take last. I was still above 50 people, I did score points, I did help the team. So it was pretty cool to be 10th in the nation.”
“It was really cool to see them all do very well there and the girls were really excited,” Rogowski added. “I know that at first when they were announced as being 10th, they were like ‘oh that wasn’t good enough, we wanted to do better.’ But I just reminded the girls that they were top ten in the nation. That’s still a really huge accomplishment. And I think they were proud of that overall and it was cool to have them acknowledged.”
Eleven total members from the Colby chapter were able to attend the expo this year. On the way to Indianapolis, members had the opportunity to tour Fair Oak Farms pig facility as well as a potato farm. At the convention center, members heard multiple messages from various speakers including Kevin Wanzer and the National FFA officers and were able to attend the rodeo or the concert. They also had the opportunity to attend various workshops to help develop their leadership skills and learn about new technology and other skills at the FFA Expo.
MAKING THEIR MARK IN INDY - The Colby FFA was out in force at the National FFA Convention and Expo last October. Above, the members posed in front of the giant FFA statue that greets students from across the country, while the quartet who competed at the convention, below, received a plaque for their “Gold” team performance.
