Hayes Center FFA ag sales team places at nationals

Imperial FFA wasn’t the only area school that performed well at the 92nd National FFA Convention in Indianapolis last week.
The Hayes Center FFA was one of 42 teams participating in the ag sales contest.
They ended up placing sixth.
The team of Jakob Anderjaska, Ethan Broker, Jaycee Lapp and Ashton Erickson is coached by Randy Vlasin of Imperial, a former CCS ag teacher and Imperial FFA advisor.
Hayes Center took state championship honors in ag sales in April during the Nebraska State FFA Convention.
Anderjaska also took 10th place individually in ag sales and received a $400 scholarship from Bayer Agrisciences.
Broker, Jaycee and Erickson each received a silver rating individually.
“I was really proud of our team,” Vlasin said. “It’s an honor and a great experience to compete at this level.  Every team there is a state champion, so the competition is tough.  These four students did Hayes Center proud.”
The competition was very tough, especially at the top end, he added.  
The competition had a total of 1,150 points spread across the team event, individual sales call and written test.
There was only a 53-point spread between the top seven teams, making it less than a 5% margin among them.
“When we looked at the scores, you realize how close you were to winning the national championship,” Vlasin said.
“Of course you start to second guess yourself a little when it’s that close. Yet in the big picture, ending up sixth in the nation in that close of a run is pretty good and something to be proud of, especially when you consider the size of the schools we were competing against,” he said.
Vlasin looked up the schools in the top 10 to see what student enrollment was.
“Other than Hayes Center, the next smallest school, grades 9-12, was 256,” he said. “It then went to 619, and after that it was between 1,300 and 2,300 students per school. So somewhat larger than we are used to,” according to Vlasin.
Also from the area, Eustis-Farnam earned fifth place in the FFA meats judging contest at nationals.