Avery County’s Eli Church, left, and Aaron King partake in the equipment-identification portion of the National Turfgrass Science Invitational at the GCSAA Conference and Trade Show in San Diego. King and Church placed 1-2 in the individual competition. Photo by Darrell J. Pehr
The mountain community of Avery County, N.C., was hit hard last year by the downpours that devastated western North Carolina in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene. Not long after the floodwaters receded, though, a flood of support helped a team of high school students from Avery County realize their dream of competing in — and winning — the National Turfgrass Science Invitational at the 2025 GCSAA Conference and Trade Show in San Diego.
Teams of agricultural science students from across the country put their knowledge and skills on the line at the first national turfgrass FFA competition. With four FFA members each, the 15 teams came from Alabama, Arizona, California, Kansas, Louisiana, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and Wisconsin. When all the putting green cups were cut, tee markers were placed and classroom scores were tallied, the Avery County team not only took the top team award, but its members dominated in the individual competition, with Aaron King taking first, Eli Church second, Preston Burnop fifth and Finley Trivett eighth.
The journey to the winner’s circle was not easy, and their participation was in doubt when the September 2024 storms dumped up to 38 inches of rain. The downpours turned to raging floods, which washed away trees, homes, businesses, bridges and lives.
“We saw catastrophic flooding,” says Dewayne Krege, the Avery County FFA adviser who teaches agricultural education at the local 600-student high school, which was shaken by the damage and even deaths of some community members. Within a week of the disaster, anonymous local donors stepped up, covering the full costs of traveling, attending and competing at the GCSAA conference.
“It was an amazing blessing,” says Krege. The support for the team mirrored the overall outpouring of support for the community as a whole. “Man, did we see people step up and be the hands and feet of Jesus, and willing to help people out,” he said. “It was amazing.”
As a result of the disaster, the high schoolers missed eight weeks of school, so they had the additional challenge of keeping up with their studies in the aftermath.
Krege says golf is important in Avery County, with nine golf courses, and team members were able to get hands-on experience as they prepared for the competition.
“We have more golf courses in our county than stoplights,” he says. Krege was instrumental in establishing in 1999 a turfgrass program at the high school, which has its own putting green and turfgrass plots and has established a tradition of producing turfgrass management professionals. He noted that five students who went through the high school turf program have gone on to finish their university studies and become assistant superintendents in the past four years.
Preparation for the NTSI was extensive.
“We started visiting local golf courses,” Krege says. “They started coming to our putting green and changing cups and practicing with the Stimpmeter and using our tees we have here to set up situations.”
The team also did case studies from the examples they had been provided by the USGA’s Carson Letot, Ph.D., who oversaw the academic side of the competition. They spent time studying the rubrics of how they would be graded and what they needed to focus on. In addition, using GCSAA, USGA and other online resources, the students studied a glossary of golf maintenance terms.
Krege’s own background in turfgrass management was a benefit for the team. Before teaching at the high school, he worked at Linville Ridge Country Club while attending North Carolina State University and after graduation as an assistant superintendent for a few years. Krege also worked in the turf industry and started a turfgrass company, Fairway Lawns. Since 1999, he has been teaching ag mechanics and horticulture at the high school. He also received a GCSAA national scholarship while a student at NCSU.
Members of Avery High’s turfgrass program help maintain the bentgrass putting green at the school as well as plots of tall fescue, Kentucky bluegrass and Tahoma 31 bermudagrass, no small feat considering the community’s elevation at nearly 4,000 feet. The program also manages the cool-season grass outfields for the school’s baseball and softball fields.
The team was greeted by a programmable road sign at the high school when they returned from San Diego. It read, “Welcome home, FFA turfgrass national champions!” The next day at school, the entire student body lined the hallways to congratulate the champions.
Krege says they plan to compete next year when it is hosted by the Sports Field Management Association. In the meantime, the team is still getting used to being national turfgrass science champions.
“They have reacted very humbly,” Krege says, “but they are proud of themselves.”
Darrell J. Pehr is GCM’s science editor.