By BETH ZUMWALT
Submitted photo
Pleasant Hill FFA members, Jared Goewey and Louis Barnes, fine tune their in anticipation of the Illinois High School and Illinois Pork Producers championship Pork and Pigskins competition. Approximately 70 schools have signed on to have their concession stand pork chops judged with a chance to move up the competition ladder. The winner will be announced at the half time of the 6A championship football game, Nov. 27.
With just a week to have on-line voting pick their pork chop, the Pleasant Hill FFA feels they are at a disadvantage. Voting is from Oct. 4-8.“We don’t have a home game this week,” Mary Barnes, FFA advisor, said. “People are always telling us they like our pork chops and we can only hope they remember how good they were and vote.” Pleasant Hill is in the Hampshire region with the other three regions also named for breeds of swine: Berkshires, Durocs and Yorkshires.Included in the Hampshire division are several schools larger than Pleasant Hill. Greenfield and Triopia area also in the mix as far as regional competitions. Anna Jonesboro, Breese, Carlinville, E. Peoria, Peoria Richwoods, Pekin are just a few of the 23 schools in the region. Once the on-line voting has narrowed the field to four schools in each region, The Savory 16 in-person judging will begin.The IHSA will have a panel of expert judges to make the rounds to sample and rate the pork chops. Oct. 23, the Flavorful 4 will be announced during the IHSA Playoff Pairing Preview show, at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 1-4, online voting will be open to vote on the winner of the state championship. The winning school will receive a prize package from the Illinois Pork Producers Association that includes a $500 reimbursement on their pork purchase for next season, a state championship banner, and a golden spatula for the winner.
Voting is on the ISHA home page at IHSA.org. Voters can vote as many times as they like.
