The Marietta FFA Chapter hosted their annual Shop Rat Showdown ag mechanics show at the
Love County Fairgrounds on Saturday, March 7. Fifteen schools from across Oklahoma and
Texas were represented by 85 entries.
Although Texas schools had to show in the Red River Rumble, the chapter’s fall show, to be
eligible to show in the Shop Rat Showdown, for Oklahoma kids, it was an open project show,
one designed to be a warmup for the Oklahoma Youth Expo, held at the state fairgrounds
complex in a few weeks.
“Kids can come to our show, and they can better understand the show and interview process
for OYE,” said MHS FFA advisor Josh Bazor.
And it doesn’t hurt that the show offers approximately $12,000 in prizes.
“We put on a good contest, we have good judges and good prizes, so it’s worth the trip,” added
Bazor. “We always have a lot of compliments about how good our show is and how much
community traffic we have. Our community really supports us – they’re in and out all day
looking at projects, and with the weather we had on Saturday, that’s surprising.”
The Showdown allowed entries in six different divisions: wildlife, outdoor recreation,
decorative, livestock, trailers, machinery, smokers, and firepits.
“We had 18 trailers this year,” Bazor stated, “everything from horse trailers, to heavy
equipment trailers, to bumper pulls.”
The grand champion winning project was a hydraulic squeeze chute exhibited by Strother FFA.
Marietta FFA member Brody Bazor was the bronze winner overall with his firewood processor.
The Marietta show is the fourth that the chapter has been to this season.
“At the Hugo show, we won grand and reserve grand, at our county livestock show we won
grand and reserve grand, at the T&D show we won grand, and then bronze at the Shop Rat,”
explained Bazor. “We’re gearing up for OYE, and then we have three more in Texas.”
Mere attendance at ag mechanics shows isn’t enough for Bazor and his kids who have been in
the ag mechanics game a while now, long enough that they’ve come to enjoy the spirit of
competition of the shows along with the sense of family when they travel together.
“We have experience now, seeing what’s winning, and it shows in the complexity of our kids’
projects and their attention to detail,” said Bazor. “We don’t just show up anymore. When we
load up all of our trailers in Marietta and head out to shows now, we expect to win.”