Getting into the (tractor maintenance) zone
S.A. girl, 18, among dozens of students vying in FFA contest
In a sea of baseball caps, 18-yearold Sage Boettcher’s blond ponytail stands out.
It bobs beside the bright orange tractor in front of her as she bangs the back wheels in frustration.
It wobbles as she peers closely under the seat, searching for the problem.
It stops as she remembers: The clock is ticking.
Just minutes into the Houston Rodeo’s State FFA Tractor Technician Contest, and the San Antonio senior is in the zone.
Right now, the three-person James Madison High School team is poised to knock out the competition in NRG Center.
They cleaned up in the two qualifying events the day before: the written test and the components exam, which required answering questions about specific tractor parts.
Despite a nasty stomach flu that left her throwing up before the test, Boettcher (pronounced “betcher”) toughed it out and scored high enough to come in 21st out of 90 in the preliminary individual rankings.
“If she had been not sick, she’d be getting first place,” says her teacher, Jared Rode, as he casts an eye over the competition. “She is basically the leader of this team here.”
At this point in the competition, she’s also the only girl left on any of the teams.
The qualifying season started with some 70 teams from across the state. Most of those aspiring tractor mechanics were eliminated after rounds of district and area competitions, so just 30 teams qualified for the statewide face-off at Houston Rodeo. Of those, 20 were knocked out in the test and exam rounds.
And now, it’s down to just 10 teams. They each have 30 minutes to find five “bugs” in the tractors before them.
There’s a flurry of activity as Boettcher and her team members tackle different parts of the tractor. Rode seems pleased with their headway when they quickly knock out four of the bugs.
“They have a loose steering wheel,” he explains, as they identify one of the problems.
But as the minutes tick by, one bug eludes them. Suddenly, another team’s tractor revs up and begins its compulsory pass around the area.
The other teams kick into panic mode.
Boettcher throws her hands up in frustration. As the other teams’ tractors start up one by one, she moves faster and faster. Finally, the James Madison team’s engine roars to life.
They’ve completed the challenge, but Boettcher is clearly devastated as she pushes her sweaty safety goggles atop her head. They were the second-to-last team to complete their ride around the arena.
For her, this event wasn’t about representing women or breaking barriers; it was about making her teacher proud.
And it was about doing good by her mom, an enlisted military member who served in Kuwait and raised her kids alone.
“She inspires me to be independent,” Boettcher says. “I’m a softer version of my mom. I’m not rough as nails yet.”