The Turlock City Council honored Turlock High’s FFA state championship fruit tree-judging team during Tuesday night’s meeting.

“We are fortunate to have a bunch of youth here who have done some amazing things and represented Turlock,” said Mayor Amy Bublak. “We just wanted to make sure they got the representation that they fully deserved.”

Junior Diego Peguero, and sophomores Alyx Barragan, Isabella Andrade, and Vivienne Gianotti-Delgado were given proclamations by Mayor Amy Bublak and posed for pictures with the full city council.

“You see that we got first place in the state, but what you don’t see is the amount of time and the amount of hours we put into practicing every week to get to that goal,” said Peguero, who spoke on behalf of the team during the meeting. “If you guys don’t know, if you get first place in a team event, you can’t compete in it again. So, we’re all moving on to a different team

“We’re all moving on to a different team next event next year, and hopefully we all stay together to try and win another state title.”

FFA — or Future Farmers of America — is an organization for students that are interested in agriculture and leadership. According to its website, the FFA helps students develop their potential and discover talents through hands-on experiences, which give members the tools to achieve real-world success.

But FFA is not solely for students with ag backgrounds or those interested in ag careers.

“In all honesty, I had no knowledge about anything related to agricultural or fruit trees,” said Barragan. “When I heard about the team, I wanted to get involved. But fruit trees really stood out to me, because we had an amazing coach in Mr. (Travis) Cardoso. I’d been in his class during my freshman year and I really wanted to join the team with him as my coach.”

Andrade also didn’t have an ag background, though she did grow up raising rabbits.

“I didn’t really have an awareness of what FFA was, but I’m very grateful that I’ve gained that awareness, thanks to our advisor, Mr. Cardoso,” said Andrade. “And though people see that we won first place, I’ve learned leadership and countless skills that I can apply to various areas of life. So, it definitely means a lot to me, even though I didn’t have prior knowledge of it.”

Gianotti-Delgado was a last-minute addition to the team and only had one day to get up to speed. But being on the team opened her eyes to the importance of agriculture.

“At first, I didn’t think ag was a big deal,” said Gianotti-Delgado, who also does not have an ag background. “But now, seeing how much ag relates to our future, it 100 percent changes my perception of agriculture.”

Cardoso is one of six ag teachers at Turlock High, which has a robust FFA program. He guided the team to the state title on April 12 at Fresno State University, where they could judge a variety of trees.

“They judged them based on their character, their shape, the symmetry among the tree,” said Cardoso. “Then, they’ll go to a judge and tell them why they placed the tree where they placed it. They do that four times — peaches, apricots, nectarines, and then almonds. They judge all four, going to four different judges, making assessments and giving a rationale for their assessment.”

Turlock beat Righetti (Santa Maria) by one point to capture the winner’s trophy.