LINCOLN -- Kevin Barenberg focuses on a single goal when taking competitive teams to the National FFA Convention each year -- winning a national championship.
"If I'm taking a team we might as well try to win it," Barenberg said.
Lincoln FFA Poultry Judging team members: Kali Brewer, Shayla Fox, Shylynn Osborne, and Lacie Carte, embraced that perpetual quest and performed well under the spotlight of the highest level of competition. Branded the country's largest annual student gathering with 67,000 in attendance, the 2017 National FFA Convention & Expo was held Oct. 25-28 at Indianapolis, Ind. The Lincoln FFA brought home a national championship in Poultry Judging from the 2017 National FFA Convention & Expo.
That singular focus empowers consistent high placement. Barenberg has qualified eight Poultry Judging teams which have competed at nationals in his 18 years as teaching Vocational Agriculture and as advisor for Lincoln's FFA Chapter.
"We've been second four times, third twice, and fifth once, we've never won it (until this year)," Barenberg said. "To win a national title is a huge accomplishment. What a lot of people don't realize is this is literally the culmination of four years of competition."
Barenberg estimates he and the team have traveled hundreds of thousands of miles competing in Arkansas, Oklahoma and Missouri over the past four years. Barenberg strives to keep a perspective that, while winning isn't everything, the name-recognition that goes along with a national championship goes a long way to opening doors.
"Scholarship opportunities are on the line, careers in the Poultry Service industry are on the line," Barenberg said. "If I don't give them the opportunity to do their best, then I'm failing them. Good enough isn't good enough if you can do better and better isn't good enough if you can be the best."
Along the journey Barenberg emphasizes maintaining sportsmanship by training FFA competitors to win with dignity and handle losing with modesty. Lincoln teams have won 37 state championships during Barenberg's tenure. He coached all of them but four, although "Coach" is not how he wishes to be addressed.
"Last night one of the kids called me 'Coach,'" Barenberg said.
"These girls, I promise you, have worked as hard as anybody at school has worked in any activity and they deserve any recognition they can get for it."
Poultry judging is an academic competition based upon USDA grades and standards for food processing as well as live-bird handling. Competition also includes a poultry-management test that Barenberg compares to testing on upper-level college material.
"These students, by the time they're done competing, have an understanding of the poultry industry from top to bottom and inside and out," Barenberg said.
The girls soaked up knowledge and sharpened their expertise to the point Barenberg said their knowledge of Poultry Judging exceeded his which is quite an acknowledgment coming from a veteran FFA advisor, now in his 19th year at the helm of Lincoln's FFA Chapter.
"When you move from the role of teacher to that of chauffeur you're in a good spot," Barenberg said. "I have no other way of explaining it any other way other than God has blessed me with an excellent co-teacher in Miss (Sarah) Hale and community support that has allowed us to have the success that we've had."
"The teacher in me, I really love the career-development events because they give a student a reason to truly get in-depth about studying a subject that they find interesting. When a student has a desire and interest in something and they're competitive, there's no end to what they can accomplish."
What's even better, Barenberg says, is FFA participants often don't realize they're learning valuable agricultural career skills because of the concentration on competition.
"I don't know if I can put into words the amount of passion these girls have for this," Barenberg said. "They have spent untold hours studying for this, traveling, laughing, crying and competing all over this region."
Barenberg has watched the team grow from knowing little to nothing about Poultry Science to being smarter than he is in the subject.
"That's when I know I have accomplished something as a teacher," Barenberg said. "That's a huge reward. One thing special about this team, their goal wasn't to get to state, do well at state, and maybe get to nationals; their goal was to be national champions. That has driven them to this point."
Sports on 11/22/2017