Winning involved physics, math, ‘debugging’
GRANGER — For the first time in more than two decades, a team of Granger Independent School District FFA students reaped the honors they sowed at a state competition.
Four pupils placed sixth in the 2026 Texas FFA Tractor Technician Career Development Event State Contest recently held at the NRG Center in Houston.
The tractor-tech squad includes seniors Jakob Knippa, Dayton Knippa and Nick Hamende and sophomore Luke Nemec, After earning first-place awards in area competition, the team plowed ahead to state, marking the first time in over 20 years the Granger FFA earned a berth in a Texas-wide competition, educators said.
“This is truly one of the hardest contests. It literally takes everything they’re learning at school, like math and physics, and puts it together in one contest,” said Erica Pavliska, Granger Career and Technical Education teacher and FFA advisor.
The preliminary round of the state competition last month consisted of 36 teams from across Texas ranging from Class A to 6A schools competing against each other.
“They take a 100-question exam over general tractor knowledge and then they have a component appraisal over 20 different tractor parts,” Pavliska said.
The Granger team advanced to the finals, where the competition tested their abilities in troubleshooting, diagnosing and repairing tractors.
“They actually call it ‘debugging,’” Pavliska said.
Each team is provided with a tractor and a mock work order listing five different possible issues. The students then had to fix the problems.
In the final round, the Granger team took sixth.
“We’re still over the moon about it,” Pavliska said.
This is the second year Granger ISD participated in the contest.
Though Pavliska said she knows little about tractors, when her pupils expressed interest in the competition she found a fellow educator who put her in touch with Truitt Luddeke, who once had been on a winning state tractor team.
“With his experience and knowledge of the contests, he was able to prepare the boys to get where they are,” Pavliska said.
Cousins Jakob and Dayton Knippa participated in last year’s tractor tech team, but Hamende and Nemec were newcomers this year.
Nemec said he does not plan on a career in the field, but appreciates the skills he learned.
Recruiters also attend the tractor-tech contest, scouting for future employees.
“I think it’s also important to note that the tractor tech contest is about as close to preparing them for a career in the real world as you can get,” Pavliska said.
That meant the students needed to hone their communication skills.
“If (recruiters) want to talk to you, you’ve got to be able to present yourself well and be able to hold a conversation with them,” Hamende said.
While Hamende enjoyed his time on the team, he wants to attend Texas State Technical College for heating, ventilation and air conditioning training.
Both Knippas love diesel mechanics and are planning to enroll at Wyoming Technical Institute in Laramie, Wyoming, together after graduation.
