By Morgan Wurm

On Monday April 28, Sam Robertson, Jaret Shook, Derek Kalb and Ray Stahl took flight on a journey of a lifetime as they flew to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma to take part in the National Urban Soil Judging Contest.

In the Homesite Evaluation contest, a team from Indiana took first place at the contest and the Buckeye Central FFA Chapter placed 44th out of 57 teams.

“The soil was a lot different in Oklahoma compared to Ohio,” Kalb said. “We studied really hard in the classroom and we tried to compete our best at the National level. Overall this was a trip that I won’t forget.”

When judging the Homesite Evaluation testing, the team was looking for soil that is suitable for lawn and gardening, sewage systems and and digging basements.

When the team arrived at the Dallas-Fort Worth Airport they next traveled to their favorite restaurant in Justin, Texas, the Lonesome Spur Diner. Later that evening they attended the Oklahoma City Redhawks minor league baseball game.

On Tuesday, April 29 the team started off their morning attending a practice pit for their contest on Thursday. After the practice pit they took a tour in Stockyard City which is the largest livestock auction yard in the United States.

After dinner at the Fat Elvis Diner they attended the Oklahoma City Thunder NBA Playoff Game.

On Wednesday, April 30, they started the morning by again going to another practice pit and then traveling to Celebration Station to play a round of putt putt golf.

That evening the boys went to Express Cattle Ranch and a Team Social to meet other FFA members who were also at the National Soil Judging Level.

Thursday, May 1 was a very important day for the BC FFA Urban Soil Judging Team. They competed in the soil judging contest and anxiously awaited their results.

In between the contest and the results ceremony the team toured the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum.

When the boys returned home on Friday, May 2 they flew into Columbus just in time to attend the fourth general session of the Ohio FFA State Convention to be recognized as the State Winners of the Urban Soil Judging Contest.

“This was a once in a lifetime experience for all of us,” Shook said. “We had a great time judging soil together but we also made so many memories attending all of the other sights in Oklahoma this year.”