MANSFIELD — Sean Adam’s competitive streak doesn’t end when he steps off the football field.
The assistant football coach and defensive coordinator is also the instructor for the new Agribusiness career technical program at Mansfield Senior High School. He aspires to make it one of the most popular choices among students learning a trade.
“Our hope is to have 10 in each class, if not more,” he said. “Hopefully, we could rival (the culinary program) as far as numbers.”
Adams, who taught special education courses in the district for 10 years, grew up on a farm on northwest Ohio. He continues to farm a small operation in Bellville, where he grows hay and feed corn and raises a few hogs and 23 head of Black Angus cattle.
In the agribusiness program, students learn what it takes to run a viable enterprise. They also get their hands dirty in a 144-foot tunnel across the street from the high school.
The new tunnel and CTE program is an expansion of Mansfield City’s efforts to make agricultural education accessible to students. The initiative started last year, when teachers and volunteers erected a smaller high tunnel at Malabar Intermediate.
Inside the hoop house, students tend to rows of kale, onions, lettuce, carrots, beets and Swiss chard. Adams said the inaugural round of cold weather crops should be ready for harvest by February.
“Seeing the kids put in the time and the work — how they come out here and take care of it, water it, put things away — it’s just been real rewarding to see them take ownership,” Adams said.
“We want to create productive citizens. This might be a career path for somebody or maybe some subsistence living down the road where they can have their own garden.”
Course offerings for the new program include greenhouse management and animal and plant science, as well as a career exploration class for ninth and tenth graders. Nikia Fletcher, who heads up the career technical education program for Mansfield Senior High School, said the program will add four more classes to its roster next school year.
Students in the agribusiness program will be able to earn six college credits through the program, as well as an industry-recognized credential from the Ohio AgriBusiness Association.
“We want to teach entrepreneurship,” she said. “We want the students to be able to learn something with their hands that they can make into a business.”
“We want to create productive citizens,” instructor Sean Adams said. “This might be a career path for somebody or maybe some subsistence living down the road where they can have their own garden.”
Junior Ja’ontay O’Bryant worked at the NECIC’s Urban Farm over the summer, but he said he didn’t realize how much money a person could make in agriculture until signing up for the agribusiness program.
“It’s a little harder than what it seems,” he said of the business aspect of the program. “But if you can find a group to do it with, it’s very easy to accomplish.”
The hoop house was installed just in time for the start of the 2022-2023 school year. Students spent the first few weeks of the school year breaking up the ground, filling it with topsoil and compost and setting up a drip irrigation system.
“When we got here, it was just this stuff,” Adams said, kicking at the dusty clay surface of the high tunnel’s walkway.
In future school years, students will be able to plant a crop for fall harvest at the start of the school year, followed by a series of winter and summer crops.
Fletcher said the produce generated by the program will be used by students in the culinary program and sold by student-run businesses.
“We want to link with Todd (Hoovler, entrepreneurship instructor at Mansfield Senior) and have students do a marketing plan for pickles or plants or whatever it is that they want to do as it relates to their business and agriculture,” she said.
Just four months into the program, Adams already has plans to expand. He hopes to add outdoor beds beside the hoop house and a chicken coop in an onsite garage.
Fletcher said the school is also looking into starting an FFA and Business Professionals of America chapters, though they likely wouldn’t start this school year.
Adams said field trips will also be a part of the program. He’s already taken students to a chicken processing plant. He hopes to take students to a dairy farm and the Agricultural Technical Institute at the Ohio State University’s Wooster campus later.
The school has also established a partnership with Kingwood Center Gardens. On a crisp Friday morning, students worked beside Kingwood employees to plant tulip bulbs in front of the mansion.
Junior Elias Owens set his soil knife on the garden bed and curled his fingers in and out. The biting cold had found its way through his work gloves.
Owens said he signed up for the agribusiness program because Adams is his coach, but the Tyger tight end has enjoyed getting to work with his friends off the field. While he’s not considering a career in agriculture, he still plans to put his newfound knowledge to good use.
“My grandma does a lot of gardening, so I feel like I can help her out now because I know what to do,” he said.
Junior Trent Cain is still deciding whether he wants an office job or a career in landscaping. He believes others should learn to the basics of agriculture, regardless of their career path.
“This is something I did when I was younger. My grandpa, he always had a garden,” he recalled. “It was just a great pastime and a great way to bond with him.”
“It’s a great skill to have. If you have the heart for it, you can take nothing and turn it into something.”
