Ele Hein, Courtney Kuemin, Cameron Hayden, Emily Waldschmidt and Jacob Roth made up the Cassopolis FFA Parliamentary Procedure team. They will compete at the National FFA Convention in the fall. (Leader photo/Provided)

The Cassopolis Future Farmers of America had another successful trip to the state convention at Michigan State University earlier this month.

Cassopolis brought home a pair of state titles from the 85th Michigan FFA Convention held March 6-8.

Three leadership teams advanced to the state competition, while several individuals received awards as a total of 26 Cassopolis FFA members attended the event.

The Parliamentary Procedures team took first place and will now compete at the National FFA Convention this October in Louisville, Ky. Parliamentary Procedure is one of 11 leadership contests held at the state level. It helps develop the ability of FFA members to conduct meetings effectively according to correct parliamentary procedure and to improve leadership skills.

The championship team consists of Cameron Hayden, Ele Hein, Courtney Kuemin, Jacob Roth and Emily Waldschmidt.

The Greenhand Conduct of Meetings team of Dylan Armstrong, Daniel Deubner, Emily Dussel, Casey Pflug, Austin Green, Jackie Cogdell-Kelley, Colin Kelly, Austin Voss and Monica Ward also brought home a state title and will compete at the national convention.

This is the first time there has been a national Greenhand competition.

“We will be the first team from Michigan to ever compete in that contest,” FFA advisor Carrie George said. “That’s exciting. Those are all freshmen and so that will be a new experience to take freshmen in to compete at that level.”

Like the Parliamentary Procedure competition, Greenhand Conduct also helps develop the ability of FFA members to conduct meetings according to correct parliamentary procedure and to improve leadership skills.

The team received a gold medal for its championship.

The Cassopolis Agricultural Issues team earned a silver medal at the state competition.

That team consisted of Emily Cutting, Jordan Dowling, Michelle Green, Olivia Hertsel, Moriah Holloway, Marissa Waldschmidt, Stephen Walker and Tyler Ward.

Kwesi Huffman earned a silver award in Creed speaking, while Hayden and Emily Waldscmidt earned their Outstanding Junior Degrees.

“We had an incredible week,” George said. “We probably had more awards this year than any of the 14 years I have been involved with the Cassopolis FFA. Our chapter earned a Gold Award in the National Chapter Contest and that hasn’t happened since I have been around.

“Back in Ross Beatty’s days they were known for that. They had the most consecutive golds of any chapter for a while. As a whole we did great. Cameron Hayden ended up the runner-up overall for the Outstanding Junior Degree. There are probably 200 to 300 kids who get the Outstanding Junior, but he was named in the top three and finished first runner-up.”

Cassopolis has the only Cass County FFA chapter and is one of the five largest in the state of Michigan with 125 members. Its members come from both Cass and Berrien counties.

Agricultural education courses offered at Cassopolis include agriscience research, animal science, plant science, ecology and food science.