Students in the Tallassee FFA program are used to having their names called at district and state competitions.
This year is no different as three teams placed first at state — floriculture, aquaculture and quartet — and another placed second — nursery landscape — at the recent Alabama State FFA convention. Tallassee FFA advisor Dr. Daniel Free said the students work hard and expect success.
“These kids are dedicated,” Free said. “Floriculture started practicing last summer. Nursery landscape never stopped. They competed at district last April, won state, practiced through nationals in October and acquired a couple new teammates for this year. They only took about a month off to get ready for district this year.”
Floriculture is continuing to practice this summer for national competition at this fall’s National FFA Convention. Free said his students on the nursery landscape team were disappointed in the second place finish at state.
“They missed it by a hair — it was close,” Free said. “They won state last year and competed at nationals last year. They were not happy with second at state this year. They worked hard for it.”
The floriculture team is special to Free. It was started in 2017 under his watch at Tallassee FFA. This year’s first place at state is its best success ever.
“The first time at district we didn’t do too hot, but we were learning it,” Free said. “Tallassee hadn’t had a floriculture team before. From there we have bannered every year but COVID.”
Free describes the floriculture competition as one of the hardest in the FFA competitions. There are hundreds of plants to learn to go along with diseases, insects, equipment and general knowledge.
The floriculture team is preparing to be successful at nationals but is staying humble.
“I’m looking forward to having fun with it,” floriculture team member Gracie Wallace said. “I know we are going to practice and do our best. I’m not going into it expecting first place, but I do want that.”
Avery Nolin is much like Wallace in wanting to do well and represent Tallassee
“It’s a great experience just to be a part of and to say we did it,” Nolin said.
Nolin and Wallace realize the task at hand for them and Anna Eller and Alina Tran, their other team members. Their plan is to practice at least twice a week between now and October. They realize one of the toughest parts of preparing for nearly eight hours of competition is the general knowledge questions they must study continually.
“There are 550 of them and even though we are only tested on 50 at a time,” Nolin said. “We have to know all of them because it is random. “You could get like one out of every section. You can’t escape any section.”
Just getting ready for the state competition were trips to Home Depot and Southern Homes and Gardens to practice plant identification. But there was a special trip this spring that stands out.
“We also went to Jim Scott’s gardens on Lake Martin,” Nolin said. “It was amazing and stunning.”
Wallace added, “It was like heaven on Earth.”
The quartet team of Danielle Bird, Emily Hacker, Robert Towry and Draven Haynes won the state title but there is no national competition. The same is true of the aquaculture team of Harley Langley, Jacqueline Sanchez, Allie Tran and Gaines Nolin.
Free said the primary focus of the aquaculture team is raising fish on a large scale. He said the team is representative of the work all the students put forth to be successful.
“There is a lot of chemistry and physics,” Free said. “The first team was in 2019 when a group of friends came together. They got first then. The current team assembled in October. They started practicing and didn’t stop. It shows you how much time they put in.”