Congratulations to teams, FFA chapters

Congratulations are in order this week for a number of local high school students.
The Wildcats girl’s hockey team accomplished a milestone over the weekend, winning their first ever trip to the girl’s hockey state tournament.
The Wildcats were scheduled to meet Fergus Falls at the Xcel Energy Center in the quarterfinals.
In addition to girl’s hockey, gymnastics is scheduled for Friday and Saturday, at Roy Wilkins Auditorium in St. Paul. The Byron gymnastics team will be competing in the team competition on Friday and also individuals on Saturday.
The girls earned their spot at state last weekend with a win over Winona in the Section 1, Class 1A section tournament.
KoMet wrestlers have also secured a place in the state tournament by defeating Zumbrota-Mazeppa for the Section 1AA title. The state wrestling tournament begins February 29, with the KoMets scheduled to take on Dawson-Boyd-Lac Qui Parle-Montevideo at 9 a.m. at the Xcel Energy Center.
Section play is still continuing in both boys and girl’s basketball with the Girls State Tournament March 13 — 16 at Williams Arena and Maturi Pavillion-University of Minnesota and Gangelhoff Center — Concordia University.
The boy’s tournament will be March 20-23 at Williams Arena-University of Minnesota, Target Center, and Gangelhoff Center — Concordia University.
Congratulations and best of luck to all the local athletes who will be competing in coming weeks.
Not to be overshadowed by the athletes, the members of FFA Chapters are celebrating National FFA Week this week.
FFA Chapters in Byron, Kasson-Mantorville, Hayfield, and Triton have all planned special activities this week.
FFA, originally called Future Farmers of American, was founded in 1928 and has grown to more than 9,000 chapters across the country.
The organization has expanded greatly in the years since it was founded. It has grown from an organization for boys with an agriculture background to including girls and members who have no personal connection to the farm.
While it is still agricultural at its core, many members join for the leadership, communication, and business skills they can develop.
For those who may be interested in a career in agriculture it is a chance to learn about what is available to them.
FFA members can explore a wide range of interests certainly including traditional roles of farm animals and growing crops, but also veterinary science, ag mechanics, ag marketing, natural resource management.
In speaking with FFA members in Dodge County and Byron it was clear that for many members the leadership skills that they acquired through their participation were invaluable. One example of this is Cadence Spearman who said she was using her leadership skills to be the main organizer of a dairy show that the Triton FFA will host at the Dodge County Fairgrounds in June. The project, Spearman said, is also her senior project at Triton.
The show will be open to participation by all FFA members in the state and members from other area chapters will be helping the Triton students during the show.
It will also give FFA members a chance to explain agriculture to a group of people who may be several generations removed from the farm and are uncertain about where their food comes from.