By: Rozlyn Williams
This past Saturday, January 20th, the El Diamante FFA Citrus Judging and Water Issue Teams competed at the Reedley College FFA Field Day, representing the El Diamante name well.
For the Citrus Judging portion of this competition, FFA students judge fruits and their qualities to meet the standards for consumers, such as the appeal and freshness of the product. The fruits that they judge include oranges, grapefruits, mandarins, and lemons. Not only that, but they are required to know the basic identification of problems and common issues that can be found in the citrus industry. Students claimed that the competition was very tough, yet they still pulled through with some amazing titles.
The Citrus Judging Team placed 4th high team in Lemons, 5th high team in Reasons, 7th high Team in Mandarins, and 7th high team overall.
Citrus Judging member, Aislinn Weisner, also got 5th in Mandarins out of 180 students. She states, “Waking up at 4am was difficult to travel to Reedley; but, the outcome was well worth it, as we all gained great experiences and learned a lot.”
Along with that, one of the El Diamante Citrus coaches, Mr. Brown, claims, “Seeing the students work together to accomplish great things at the citrus competition has been a pleasure.”
Furthermore, the El Diamante Water Issues team did well at their section, as well. The California Water is a competition about the history of the watercrafter systems and how it helps the water move throughout the state. For this portion of the competition, students are required to answer a 100-question test that includes questions of both multiple choice and true/false varieties. Similar to the Citrus Judging Teams, these students felt as if the competition was difficult.
Water Issues Team member, Cyler Hunter, states, “The competition was pretty difficult, but working through the hard questions and testing my knowledge was fun. Overall, going to the competition in Reedley was a great way to spend my weekend.”
In addition, Cyler also placed 1st high individual and the team as a whole placed 8th out of 16 teams.
Overall, the weekend was very successful for both teams, as they received many great awards and learning experiences for their topics.