MIDDLE SCHOOL MAKEOVER After a recent bond issue passed, preparations are being made for a new Kingwood Middle School.
– page 2
TURF-TASTIC With a field ready for any weather, the soccer teams enjoy the boost new turf field provides.
– page 11
HANDS ON
A STAR IS BORN
With classes like welding and culinary arts, students learn careers and trades while still in high school.
Brooke Searcy meets Voice semi-finalist Sarah Grace in Humble Voice competition.
– page 7
– pages 8-9
Kingwood Park Times FEBRUARY 2019 • VOLUME 5 • ISSUE 3 • KINGWOOD, TX 77339
Rodeo Ready
After months of work, Kocian prepares animals for final shows by Kathleen Ortiz Staff Writer The broom strokes echo rhythmically through the FFA barns as Ellie May works on her new victim. Her black snout sniffs around before choosing a pair of black and white Adidas. Senior Lauren Kocian wasn’t surprised because 20 pairs of shoes have already fallen victim to her 240-pound pig’s appetite. It’s easy to find Kocian, who is in a faded t-shirt and jeans, at the FFA barns. Someone’s always greeting her or seeking her help. For two hours a day Kocian hurries between three of the four FFA barns. She’s either feeding, cleaning or walking her pig or running her lamb. Like a shadow, her turkey usually Feb. 6-9 follows Kocian. “I just kind of learned I can’t waste my time, so I always have to be moving,” Houston Kocian said. Livestock The routine is nothing new. Show & Rodeo Kocian has been Feb. 25-March 17 around animals and barns her whole life. Her father has been an agriculture teacher for more than 40 years. She has followed him and her grandfather around barns, shows and to visit breeders since she was old enough to walk. Her family and agriculture teacher are hoping for the best in the coming weeks as she prepares to show her animals at the Humble Rodeo and Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. “I’m hoping that she makes the auctions at both shows so that she can end her show career on top,” Lauren’s agriculture teacher Kevin McCarty said. Her lamb Jax jumps up on his pen in excitement whenever he sees her nearby. Jax is Kocian’s Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo lamb as well as her “pride and joy.” Jax requires the most attention, receiving about an hour and a half of Kocian’s time per day. Kocian got Jax a week after he was weaned off his mother in June. She got him from breeder Stewart Spurill, whom she used to visit every summer in Stephenville when her dad got his sheep. She usually doesn’t show sheep, but she decided to try raising one as a senior. “I’ve known the breeder a long time,” she said. “So when I got up there he set aside some sheep for me to look at. I got the opportunity to go up there by myself and pick out my own little sheep.” With an electric razor in one hand and a sheep’s neck in the other, Kocian helps other students wrestle
Photo by Kathleen Ortiz
Senior Lauren Kocian cleans up the pen of her 240-pound pig. Kocian will show Ellie May at the Humble Rodeo.
MEET THE ANIMALS Uno (Turkey)
Weight: 20 pounds Age: 2 months Show: Humble Rodeo Bird Brain: “I just have
no memories with them. My bird literally just follows me wherever I go.” Photo by Kathleen Ortiz
With Jax by her side, sophomore Lauren Kocian hopes to end high school with a big sale in her final appearance at the Houston and Humble Rodeos. She will show Jax at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. She will show her pig and turkey at the Humble Rodeo. with their sheep to eventually sheer Jax. The Houston Livestock show will their heads for show. Despite all the be their final show. walking and feeding being done to She’ll walk Jax in without a lead, prepare animals for show, their looks just her hands underneath his neck are essential as well. and behind his ear. Then she’ll walk “Shows are like the prom of agri- him by the judge before they walk in culture,” Kocian said. a circle. Finally, she’ll make him drive, The Humpushing all his ble Livestock muscles and legs show will be back so that the Kocian’s last judge can feel show with her how much meat pig and turkey. he has on him. She will walk Kocian is not around the ring just a student guiding her pig who takes care Ellie May with of her animals. a whip and She also is the showing off her girls soccer team body. As for the manager, a posi- Agriculture teacher Kevin McCarty tion she accepted turkey, Kocian will hold Uno after suffering by the feet as the judges examine him. four concussions and then having to Hundreds of hours go into preparing quit the sport. Even with her three for those key show moments. animals, she still makes time to go on “At the beginning, the hardest thing the soccer trips and do the stat sheets. to do is make sure they’re used to you She even educates the soccer players and training them,” she said. “And on agriculture facts. that’s like walking them, making them While the soccer team teases her look right for show and everything.” Kocian has four extra weeks with KOCIAN, Continued on page 6
"Lauren is funny, very energetic, kind of loud at times, but one of the most hardest-working, most dedicated, committed kids I’ve ever been around."
Ellie May (Pig)
Weight: 240 pounds Age: 4 1/2 months Show: Humble Rodeo Pig Troubles: “One year, it was
the day before we loaded up for show. We were getting ready and somebody left the gate open. If you know how hard it is to watch a pig, it’s pretty crazy; and the pig ran out. It was raining that day so it went straight into mud. I was up there until like 11:30 at night just because it wanted to go roll around in mud.”
Jax (Lamb)
Weight: 165 pounds Age: 8 months Show: Houston Rodeo Jumping Jax: “When I first got Jax from Stephenville, he was jumping like crazy. He would do like cartwheels in the air when I was first training him. He would always land on his back, but it was just so funny because he would just sit there and be jumping around. We’re now to the point where he doesn’t jump, but every time I walk in, he hops up on the gate and notices me.”