CASSOPOLIS — Students at Ross Beatty Jr.-Sr. High School competed in an FFA contest that pitted them against the best the state of Michigan has to offer.

The annual FFA state competition took place on Thursday March 8 at Michigan State University. Even though no students from Cassopolis will be moving on to nationals, each of them received a gold, which recognizes that their performance at state was of the highest caliber.

The school had two individuals and one team competing at the state competition. The two individuals were junior Madison Suseland, competing in prepared public speaking, and seventh-grader Elizabeth Merckx, also competing in public speaking. Merckx won the state competition for middle school students, while Suseland finished sixth at the high school level in a senior dominated competition.

“I thought they both did well. It was probably the best that I’ve ever seen Elizabeth perform,” said Abby Asmus, the FFA coach at Ross Beatty Jr. Sr. High School. “She really put emotion and expression into her speech and it was really good.”

In the high school portion, Asmus said Suseland fared well in her challenging contest.

“Madison did really well. It’s different the older you get. Hers was more competitive I would say because there are typically seniors who advance and go on to nationals and a lot of them are State FFA officer candidates, who have a lot of practice with prepared public speaking and are very good at it,” Asmus said.

Merckx will not go on to nationals, even though she finished first in the state, because there is no national competition at the middle school level.

The Cassopolis team competing at state was the Parliamentary Procedure team, which finished as the second runner-up, or in third place. The team consists of one junior and the rest are sophomores.

“So far right now, the sophomores are the only ones in the [Cassopolis FFA] chapter who haven’t been to nationals to compete,” Asmus said. “I know they are a little more bummed because they were really hoping that this was their year to go to nationals and compete. I think they are going to work at it twice as hard last year.”

Suseland also plans to put in extra effort in order to make it nationals the following year.

“It meant a lot to me to get a gold at state, especially because I thought that my topic was something very close to my heart and it was something that need to be addressed more,” Suseland said. “I was very happy to do that on such a large level at state. Next year, of course, I hope to win, as it will be my last year, and I hope to go to nationals after that.”

Now that there is no longer anyone preparing for FFA competitions at Ross Beatty Jr.-Sr. High School, the chapter will host elections for officers for the 2018-19 school year. The elections will take place at the end of March. Then the next group of officers will attend a camp in April that teaches them about their responsibilities as officers and helps them to develop the necessary leaderships skills.

Finally, the chapter will host an agriculture week from April 16 through the 20, where the students will serve pie and ice cream for the teachers, prepare a breakfast for the community members, do a community service project and host an event for local elementary students.

“On Thursday, there will be Farm Days where we invite third and fourth graders to come out and hang out with the high schoolers,” Asmus said. “We’ll do a presentation on livestock and what it’s like to take care of them and the kids will get to see the animals and experience that.”