Since he was a freshman at Montgomery County High School, Derrick Cobb has been a valuable member at Cobb Farms in High Hill and Advanced Diesel and Auto Repair in Montgomery City.

The MCHS senior helps plant, harvest and market grain at Cobb Farms and works on farm trucks at Advanced Diesel and Auto Repair. The work ethic at both places certainly caught the attention of the Missouri FFA organization.

Cobb was selected as the Star in Placement Area V winner and was named one of 10 MCHS FFA members to earn a state degree. He received both of his honors during the fifth and final session of the Missouri FFA Convention on April 19 at the Hearnes Center in Columbia.

Cobb received his Star in Placement plaque on stage in front of a packed crowd full of students with blue jackets. There were 10,489 FFA members in attendance during the three-day convention, which marked a record.

“I was extremely happy and excited to find out that I was eligible to win this award,” Cobb said. “I believe I have made myself proud. I’m extremely proud of myself for getting this. I have worked hard this past year to earn this. I want to thank my advisors, Mary Leykamp and Amanda Sullivan, for helping me throughout all of the SAE visits, fill out all of the applications and tell me where I need to go and this and that. I just wanted to give them a shout out and thank them as well as my family because this is an extremely high award to get. I’m happy that I got it.”

Cobb was also ecstatic to be one of 1,051 FFA members to earn a state degree. His classmates – Aleida Eldringhoff, Raylene Poston, Shea Stille, Destani Eversmeyer, Brayden Rose, Jace Ellis, Alexa Groeber, Lexy Veach and Jaylynn Zerr – also were state degree recipients.

“It means to me that hard work pays off,” Cobb said. “All of that hard work and the jobs I didn’t like to do, it turned out that it paid off.”

Two Wellsville-Middletown seniors also earned state degrees. They were Jenelle Boeckleman and Caden Gilbert. They also helped the livestock judging team – which included Helanea McKenzie and Abbie Freie – finish 21st at the state convention.

Cobb didn’t win the overall state title in Star in Placement as Payton Rodgers of Savannah was selected for that honor. Still, Cobb was thrilled that he was MCHS’ first Star candidate in over 10 years.

“I’m extremely happy that I’m the first person to get this in over a decade,” Cobb said. “I hope to make my chapter proud and I hope to continue on this legacy with future members to come.”

Cobb said he found out that he was a candidate for area winner in Star In Placement during Christmas break. Days before the convention, he was interviewed by a panel who chooses the state winner.

“We knew the winners of the area,” said Cobb, who plans to continue working at his family farm following graduation on May 19. “Then, once the area was announced, I knew I had to compete for state. So then it was gearing up and getting ready and prepared to get my interview to run at state.”

Poston said she was happy with Cobb’s accomplishments.

“I’ve known Derrick since we were little kids,” she said. “We kind of grew up together. It’s kind of cool seeing my friends get awards because I know they worked hard to get there.”

MCHS turned in a strong showing at the convention, placing 22nd in the state and earning a gold rating, finishing ninth in ag sales, 40th in meat evaluation, 35th in floriculture, 23rd in dairy foods and 19th in agronomy. It also had three members placing in the top two in area proficiency awards. Groeber and senior Presley Schluss finished first in outdoor recreation and equine science placement, respectively, and junior Avery Ridgley came in second in equine science entrepreneurship.

Poston was on the ag sales and dairy foods teams.

“It’s pretty big,” Poston said. “I had a lot of extra time. I had to stay from school to study to get this far, so I couldn’t have done it without my team. I was glad that I had good teammates who were able to come to practice and make sure that we made it to state.”