A2B-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, February 9, 1991
Dairy Bowl Teams
(Continued from Page A 1)
Karen Lent/ (David’s sister), cap
tain, Steve Bollinger (Angie’s
brother), Kathy Habecker, Palmy
ra, and Andy Bicksler.
Michael Kunkle, of Jonestown,
is coach for both the senior and
junior dairy bowl teams. He is also
helped in coaching duties by Sue
Wemer, Jonestown, and Nelson
Bomgardncr, North Annville.
Kunkle is an inseminator for
Sire Power. He lives on his fami
ly’s farm, where they raise dairy
replacement heifers, both regis
tered Holsteins and Brown Swiss.
According to Kunkle, his own
experiences with dairy bowl com
petitions led to helping out as a
coach.
“I was in dairy bowl. What I
really liked is it taught me a lot
about the dairy industry,” Kunkle
said. “When you’re not eligible to
participate anymore you hate to
lose contact. I didn’t want to get
completely away from it.”
Kunkle, Wemer and Bomgard
ner worked with four teams this
past year two senior teams and
two junior teams.
The coaches and members
would meet at each other’s house
to practice, switching locations so
as to keep travel distances as equit
able as possible.
With the three coaches and the
four teams, each practice session
would consist of several different
activity and instruction areas and
PJHA Reconizes Excellent Breeders
READING (Berks Co.) The
Pennsylvania Junior Holstein
Association recognized Junior
members who have bred and own
ed a cow that scored excellent.
The criteria for receiving a Breed
er of Excellent cow awards are as
follows: 1. Animal must be bred
and owned by the Junior Member.
2. Animal must be scored excel
lent under your ownership. 3. Ani
mal must be alive the year the
Application is made. 4. The ani
mal will only qualify once for the
Award. 5. A photo copy of the
Registration paper must accom
pany the entry.
Juniors were recognized at the.
Junior Holstein Convention at the
Sheraton Inn, Reading for breed
ing and owning an excellent cow.
They included: Bridgcttc Boy
er, York, York County for Sun
nybend Sexy Icicle B Star-EX-90;
Adam Sonncn, Richland, Lebanon
County for Sonncn-Acres
jg are exact .secratary. the Pennsylvania
HolsteinAssociationandscholarshipwinnersßridgetteßoyerandDavidLentz.lnthe Convention Art Contest are, from
back row, scholarship winners are, from left, Dwight Stoltzfus, Kirk Sattazahn and ,eft sitting, Chris Vanco and Rachael Haager. Standing is
Scott Yowe. Joe Stitt and Shannon Semmel.
the teams would rotate so that each
team got equal time and
information.
The strategy and volunteer
efforts seemed to have paid off.
“I was very proud of them,”
Kunkle said. “They put in a lot of
hard work and I guess when they
won it made it seem all worth
while.”
Kunkle added that he felt that
the loss in the nationals last year in
Charleston, S.C., provided moti
vation to win.
“I think the biggest thing was to
go back and win the Pennsylvania
contest and get another chance to
prove themselves. They wanted
another chance at nationals and
they knew to get that chance they
had to win Pennsylvania again,”
Kunkle said.
The dairy bowl contest is a
double-elimination, question and
answer event with team and indivi
dual efforts and a speed round
involved.
As coach of both junior and
senior teams, the duo wins provide
a sense of reward to Kunkle and
the others who volunteer time to
help.
“It feels pretty good," Kunkle
said. “I think it shows the dedica
tion of the junior members. And
they knew all the time that this is
what they wanted to do. I told them
that, if this was to be, they would
have to work at it. They would
have to study put in hours of
Lucrcam EX-90; Rebecca Son
ncn, Richland, Lebanon County
for Sonnen-Acres Saul Cherish
From the Jonathan Sonnen, Jeffrey
Davis and Bridgette Boyer are recognized for having bred
cows which classified as Excellent.
PJHA Scholarship, Art Contest Winners
The top junior division dairy bowl team in the state for 1
left, Kathy Habecker, Andrew Bicksler, Karen Lentz, Steven
Kunkle.
study and research and it was
through the hours of dedication
that they were able to do that.”
This is the fifth year that Leba
non County has fielded a team.
Kunkle was on for three years.
At this year’s state competition,
there were 17 junior teams and 14
senior teams.
“That isn’t a good indication of
counties involved, Kunkle said.
Lebanon has two senior teams and
two junior teams. Some other
counties also field several teams.
“But popularity of the competi
tion is catching. There were more
(teams) this year than in the past.”
The experience behind the
Lebanon senior team and the disa
pointment of losing at the nationals
EX-90; Jeffrey Davis, Leesport,
Berks County for Daview Pete
Ginger EX-90.
last year changed the way the team
has been practicing.
“Last year at the nationals they
anticipated harder questions so thy
were more tenetative (in
responding).
“One thing that we did different
ly this year, this year we’ve been
practicing more with buzzers.
They’ve been practicing for speed
and trying to get the ‘buzz-in’
quicker, instead of waiting until
the question was over.”
Lentz said that last year’s
nationals taught them well.
“When you go into something
new, you don’t know what to
expect. Now that we were already
there, we know the contests aren’t
very different. Being in the nation
al, we know what to expect.
The problem last year was not
knowing, Lentz said.
“We didn’t really know what
kind of questioning format they
ask down there (South Carolina),”
he said explaining that they were
all prepared for some very
demanding questions.
But instead'. . .
“They were asking something
really easy, like “what is the name
for a mature bovine male. We were
studying the latest developments
in the industry and we weren’t pre
pared for something that easy.”
Lentz and Bollinger arc both
dairy science students at Penn
State University. They don’t have
lime to travel to Lebanon to attend
every or many of the team
practices.
“I left them on their own,”
Kunkle said. “When they were
home they would come to practice.
They took it upon their own to
devote time at college to practice.
‘The one thing they (Lentz and
Bollinger) don’t have is the buz
zer. We’ll soon start practicing one
991 consists of, from the
Bollinger and coach Mike
night a week and keep up on
research,” Kunkle said.
Lentz, said a win at the national
may come, but not without con
tinued dedication.
“Wc got a lot of work to do. I
think we were pretty well prepared
for the state contest We had a little
bit of luck on ourside. For our
chances at the national, we’re
going to work hard at it and hope
fully we can bring back a national
champion to Pennsylvania.”
The last time Pennsylvania had
a national champion was in 1989,
when a team from Lancaster Coun
ty won the senior division and a
team from Perry County won the
junior division.
“As captain, I feel we all worked
hard and we all have a balanced
team. A captain is nothing without
the other people on the team.”
He said that he and Angie Bol
linger do get together at college to
prepare for the dairy bowl,
“Whenever there’s a spare
moment and that’s not very often.”
But there are some benefits
being a d;ny student and being
involved with dairy bowl.
“We just don’t memorize (the
answers). It’s great that we won,
but it’s valuable because we learn
so many things from it Some
things we leant from dairy bowl
apply here. Sometimes a professor
up here goes over some material
and I think, T already know that’
but that doesn’t happen too often,”
Lentz said.
And even though Bollinger
doesn’t have the “at-the-wheel”
experience of a national competi
tion, she does have a strong back
round with dairy bowl
competitions.
For two years she had helped to
put on the dairy bowl contest.
(Turn to Page A 29)