A Middle Pair Switch Changed My Life

I used to be a high school agriculture teacher back in the day at Chowchilla High School in Chowchilla, California. Second best job I have ever had - my current job at Cal Poly is pretty good, but for different reasons. Teaching high school and college is not the same, but each is rewarding. As a college teacher I get to see results faster as my students start their careers.

Chowchilla was a little cowboy, farming community of about 4,500 when I was there learning my profession and shaping young minds. The high school had a little more than 500 kids. Half of them took ag classes. We had six ag teachers and what many considered to be one of the best agriculture programs in the country. We were even featured in a national television documentary. Eddie Albert of Green Acres fame spent some time with us while making the documentary. He was old then. He is dead now. Nice guy, but couldn't remember his lines to save his ass.

We were a little competitive.

O.K., we were a LOT competitive. We liked to win in everything we pursued with the FFA program. I had a sign over my desk that said, "I'd rather dance around all day in a tutu than come in second." We set all kinds of records, state and national, in various areas of competition. We'd like to think we were humble in victory and gracious in defeat, but you'd have to ask all the folks we beat along the way. They didn't like us very much.

I coached many different judging teams and career development events. Oddly enough, computer science in agriculture competitions proved to be my greatest success with the kids. Go figure. I didn't even like computers and had only taken one computer class in college. Hated it. But, we had state and national winners for several consecutive years.

My love was coaching the Livestock Judging Team. We ran up and down the state practicing and competing at contests. Miles and miles, hours upon hours evaluating livestock. Didn't really seem like work to me. My goal was to win a state championship. I wanted to flex my muscles as a young ag teacher and show all the old dogs how to play the game. Ooops. My team got beat like a kitchen rug the first year. I started asking more questions of the older teachers and I really listened. After that first year, we started getting our name called more often and ultimately started winning at contests everywhere except at the State Finals. Top five at state, but to a punk like me who wants to win, that wasn't enough.

After four or five years of "being in the hunt" I finally had a team of great livestock kids. They could place 'em, they could talk 'em. My sixth year was the year we'd get  to the top. I staked my future on it.

In the meantime, I had my sights set on other ambitions in my profession. I wanted to get my Ph.D. and get to the college level at some distant point in the future. Funny how things change.

After visiting Colorado State University, Penn State, Ohio State and Texas A&M University I figured I better set some definite plans if I was going to go back to school for a doctorate degree. They were all pretty serious and interested in having me attend. Hindsight tells me they all clamor for doctoral students, so I wasn't as special as I thought when I visited their campuses.

As I headed into my sixth year of high school teaching I decided, "This will be my last year unless....unless my livestock judging team wins the state championship." If they do, all bets are off. I was committed to coaching them through to the national finals the following fall. Then we'd have to defend our title the following spring!

We worked hard and it seemed like the planets were aligning for us that year. We were winning fairly consistently at all the contests. We felt good going into the state finals held in May at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo. This would be our year!

When the kids came out of the contest they felt like they nailed it. In the contest critique, things changed. My kids missed a middle pair on a market hog class. They switched it with the officials. If I recall, the cut was three or four points. I wasn't too concerned because it was a reasons class and these kids could talk a three point cut. We'd be o.k. They got all the other classes right.

We lost by two points.

I started my doctoral program at Texas A&M University four months later.

We never won a state championship in livestock judging. And you know what, I'm o.k. with that because losing open up more doors of opportunity than my little competitive pea brain could have ever imagined. A middle pair switch changed my life forever...in a good way. Ironically, I help put on the state finals livestock judging contest every year now- have for twenty years. I manage the tabulations. I feel for those good teams that switch a pair. It can change your life. No pressure.

No. I didn't wear a tutu.


Scott