Agricultural News
Kingfisher Teacher Lori Burns Gets Them Ready- And has the National Winners to Show For It
Thu, 28 Oct 2010 7:28:10 CDT
One of the great success stories of the just concluded National FFA Convention was the role that one husband and wife team of Ag Educators played in helping Oklahoma have more success than any other state. That team is Ryan and Lori Burns who teach at Kingfisher High School.
Ryan Burns is the coach of one of the elite Livestock Judging Teams at the High School level in the US. The team, composed of 2010 High School Graduates, ran away from the rest of the field in the National FFA Championships held in Indianapolis this past week. This completes a long streak of national titles won by this particular team, including 2-time American Royal championships and the champion team at the National Western Livestock Expo in Denver. Click here to read more about this team and to see their picture holding some of their hardware from this latest win.
On the speech side of competition, you will find very few ag educators that are any better at coaching young people and getting them ready for the rigors of a National FFA Speech Contest than Lori Burns. In the last two years, she has had finalists in two of the three national speech contests- Prepared Public Speaking, Extemporaneous Public Speaking and the Creed Speaking Contest. In 2009, with Final Four Speakers in the Creed Contest and the Prepared Public Speaking Contest- Mckenzie Walta won the National Prepared Public Speaking Contest. A couple of years earlier, McKenzie had finished second nationally in the Creed Speaking Contest.
In 2010, Lori and Kingfisher had a pair of Seniors competing for the last time in their career make the Final Four in Prepared and Extemp. Both Tara Newton and Ashton Mese navigated the difficult journey into the National Final Four- and then were both named National Champions.
At the same time, Kingfisher was representing Oklahoma in the National Parliamentary Procedure Contest- narrowly missing the National Finals and receiving a Gold Emblem Award for their efforts.
Last Friday night, after her two latest National Winners- I sat down in the media room behind the stage where she has had three national speech winners in two years recognized- and talked with Lori Burns about these special ladies who have gone through the Kingfisher program- and her coaching style that has helped prepare them for competing at this highest level of speaking for a High School Student.
Click on the Listen Bar to hear our visit with Lori Burns- the picture here in this story is of Lori on the National Stage applauding one of her National Award Winners earlier that evening in Indianapolis.
Our coverage of the Oklahoma FFA members at the 2010 National FFA Convention is a service of the Oklahoma FFA Alumni Association- click here for details about the Alumni Association and the Oklahoma FFA Association.
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