FFA students are competing in the area five competition on Tuesday, with teams in Farm Business Management, Milk Quality, Floriculture, and Veterinary Medical Applications looking to earn spots at state.

“Liberty students have always done phenomenal, with Liberty sending more teams to state than the other Frisco schools combined last year,” senior member Kristen Niekamp said in a text. “If your team of four people places high enough at area competition, the team advances to state competition and gets a plaque.”

While FFA consists of a variety of different competitions, students at this year’s area competition will be focusing on four events.

“There are multiple contests, called our career development events,” agriculture science teacher Julie Anderson said. “Students choose their area of interest and then participate in the career development event correlating to that interest.”

In order to advance on to state, teams must place in the top five in their events or be the in the top 15 percent of the contest area.

“When you’ve got an area with 15,000 teams, it’s really challenging to make it to the top five,” Anderson said. “We’ve got a lot of talented teams and you spread it out to the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex and it gets really competitive.”

This year’s FFA teams consist of previous state qualifiers, as well as first-time competitors, all hoping to continue placing in their respective events.

“I think everybody will do well, we’ve got some teams with experience and some first-year teams that might struggle a little bit,” Anderson said. “Last year, our Farm Business Management, our VetMed, our horse team, and our Milk Quality teams all made it to state, which was a huge accomplishment.”

For many FFA members, the competition atmosphere and the awards make the experience well worth it.

“I love the camaraderie of spring competitions, it’s a lot of traveling and a lot of time on busses, but it’s so much fun when you’re with people you enjoy,” Niekamp said. “It’s extremely fulfilling to know that you’re one of the best teams in the state, since so few teams advance. It’s definitely something to be proud of.”