Dr. Daniel Free is growing the already strong tradition of the Tallassee High School FFA program.
For decades its quartet has been recognized but other teams in aquaculture, floriculture, nursery landscape, small engines, construction and now meat evaluation have flourished too. Free has been at Tallassee for 10 years and has enjoyed seeing the program grow.
“What I like about FFA is it is good fellowship with students,” Free said. “It is good team building, leadership skills. They are getting skills here they can’t get anywhere else.
“We did it to sharpen their identification skills,” Free said. “We also took the aquaculture team because it was by the lake. A couple of the forestry students went too because I knew they would like it.”
A classroom setting is still far from the real world and the visit to the unique garden was beneficial for everyone.
“It is one thing to see it in the classroom but when you see the actual thing it is great,” Free said. “They see it perfectly landscaped. They see the clematis growing and see the mountain laurels, the lilies, and to see that in a design is amazing. The kids loved going there.”
Tallassee students have visited the garden twice in two years.
“Each time has been great,” Free said. “The get to see a real world application but what has been even more interesting is to see the discussion among the students about the various species of plants, debating whether or not they might be native or not.”
Students haven’t just been waiting for trips or classroom time to study. Free said members of the nursery landscape team spent part of spring break working on plant identification.
“This is a testimony to the kind of students we have,” Free said. “Even during break we get together to study plants.”
Free said students are constantly studying and not just in FFA but in his agriculture classes students take for credit.
“I’m a plant nerd and I extend that to my kids,” Free said. “Even in my horticulture class, they have to learn. My goal was 500 plants to have them learn. They learned about 400 which is still extremely impressive.”
One of the oldest teams for Tallassee FFA is the quartet. It was won at state and performed at the National FFA Convention three times. Free is hopeful it will do well this year.
“This year’s quarter is special,” Free said. “The personalities of the kids this year, they are so good. They just blend in so well.”
The quartet was started almost 50 years ago when Jerry Cunningham moved to Tallassee from the Atlanta area. He was a ninth grader and the only male in the glee club.
“It was culture shock,” Cunningham said. “They put me in ag. I would have never taken that before, but I did.”
Cunningham started the Tallassee FFA quartet the next year and directed it from there.
“I stayed in it all four years,” Cunningham said. “I was FFA president as a student. I loved every minute of it.”
While Quartet is one of the oldest teams for Tallassee FFA, Free is proud of the efforts of its newest team — meat evaluation.
“I’m learning it myself too,” Free said. “We don’t have any experience in this. It is a really big deal.”
Just for district competition the team learned to identify more than 70 cuts of beef, lamb and pork just by looking at photographs. Free said the team placed third at districts and is readying for a more vigorous state competition. Now the team of two freshmen and a sophomore is trying to figure out how to measure without the use of a measuring device to determine yield.
All teams are practicing two to three times per week, and Free believes the community should be proud of the FFA teams and cheer them on.
“We have special young men and women at Tallassee High School,” Free said. “They have worked so hard and these banners highlight their efforts.”