BANQUETE, Texas — A South Texas tradition we know, and love is livestock shows and despite the challenges from the COVID-19 pandemic the show goes on.
Schools from across Nueces County came together Wednesday to show their skills hoping to impress the judges one of the districts in the ring Banquete ISD.
“The kids that are here to show of course they’ve been working hard preparing, being here is a win,” said Banquete ISD Ag teacher Roel Garza.
“We have 10 students showing goats, we have a fairly large program we have about 40 pigs showing tomorrow, we brought about 60 shop projects, we have about 15 breeding heifers, a couple steers, we had a lamb show last night.”
Jacquelyn Lerma is a senior at Banquete ISD and is showing a goat at the stock show for the last time hoping to go out strong.
“Hoping for grand as everybody does their last year and we’ll see if I get it, if not the livestock show is something I’m always going to hold onto,” said Lerma.
Ag teacher Roel Garza says although it’s something everyone hopes for it’s not all about winning.
“I think there is so much more that the kids get out of other than winning is learning the responsibility and the work ethic such a big thing for these young people to learn,” said Garza.
As a former FFA student he’s hoping his students take more than a ribbon a banner or a belt buckle away from this just like he did.
“My ag teachers had a big influence on you know the career choice I made and hopefully I can instill in the students some of that,” said Garza.
And being part of these programs is a family activity.
“I’m fortunate my son got certified to teach ag he taught one year at Benavides and then we had a position become open at Banquete and he came over, so we’ve been teaching this is our third year together,” said Garza.
Roel and his son Tyler are working alongside each other at Banquete High School.
“It’s pretty cool to be able to pick his brain and get years and years of knowledge and I think it’s really helped my career kind of take off,” said Roel’s son Tyler Garza.
So now this father son duo is inspiring the next generation.
“It’s kind of a different connection to be able to help, there’s a lot of people that I’m helping their kids and I went to school with them so to be able to help my friend out and help their children out and give back to the community is a pretty cool deal,” said Garza.
The livestock show continues for the next few days, click here for the full schedule.
