TEMPLE, Texas — Two Temple High School FFA Teams will be advancing to the Area Round of Competition after posting top finishes at the District Competition earlier this week. It is believed to be the first time in at least 20 years that the Temple HS FFA chapter has qualified two or more teams for the Area Competition.
Temple High School will send an Ag Skills Demonstration Team and a Radio Broadcasting Team to compete at the Area 12 Leadership Development Event (LDE) Contest on November 21st at Academy High School. Those two teams earned spots in the Area Contest with their placement at the Cen-Tex District FFA LDE in Salado on Tuesday evening (November 4).
The Temple High School Senior Ag Skills Demonstration Team won the District title for the second consecutive year and earned a third straight trip to the Area Competition. The team is made up of Angel Esqueda, Makaila Crawford, Scarlett Salinas, Shaylin White, and Lilah Swanson, with Remy Brown serving as Team Manager. The team presented a 20-minute lesson on creating a floral centerpiece from scratch during the competition. Each team member was responsible for specific tasks during the design and creation of the centerpiece as the team described their process and designed and built their floral design project. All five team members returned from last year’s squad to defend their district title and again had high expectations going into this year’s competition.
“The competitors get to choose what skill they want to do, and they wanted to kind of stand out and picked floral design again this year,” said Kristi Branton, Ag Skills Demonstration Coach and Temple HS FFA co-sponsor. “They really went above and beyond this year and really kept pushing me for harder and harder critiques. It is really amazing to see the amount of success and how we are able to build on that year after year. It has been nice to see us create that expectation of success and having our kids really attack a task with the goal of going out and doing well and winning.”
“We had high hopes this year, but we were still a little nervous, so it feels really good to win district again this year,” added Salinas, a senior at Temple High School. “We feel like we leveled up this year and it is nice to be able to bring some more recognition to Temple. It also feels really good to be able to advance in two competitions.”
The Temple High School Radio Broadcasting Team claimed second place at the District Competition to punch its ticket to the Area Contest. The team is made up of Crawford, Salinas, Maddie Garza, and Jose Sandoval. The radio broadcast team had to write and memorize a six to eight-minute script on the topic of antibiotic use in livestock and meat consumption. The group then presented their script through microphones as if it were a radio broadcast while the judges listened in from another room. Students are judged on everything from tone and pitch to volume and pronunciation to flow and harmony between the team members as they share the script as if it were an actual radio broadcast.
“It was very exciting to find out that this team would be advancing to Area,” said Monica Kinsey, Radio Broadcasting Coach and Temple HS FFA co-sponsor. “I knew going into the competition that I had some really good kids and that we had a chance to be successful. So, it was very exciting to see that come out in the results. I am going to keep pushing these kids to reach their full potential and we are going to go into Area with the expectation that we will be successful.”
“I really enjoyed being able to see my team advance again and to have the radio team advance, too,” said Crawford, also a senior at Temple High School. “It really helps to have been to Area before, especially with our nerves. Now, it’s like we are doing this again and it wasn’t a fluke. We also go in knowing what the judges are looking for at this level.”
The Area Competition also brings the teams one step closer to the State event. The top two finishers in each event at the Area Contest will advance to the State LDE competition December 5-6th in Huntsville.