A team of Krum High School students is making headlines after earning high honors at a recent tractor restoration competition. The crew takes the term "girl power" to another level.
When she first walked into the shop at Krum High School, Claire Shelton didn't know much about tractors.
“I didn't know how the engine worked,” said Shelton. “I didn't know what tools to use."
For Claire and her classmates, impact wrenches and ratchets might as well have been foreign objects.
“I'd seen it before,” said Carlie Carroll. “But I'd never worked it."
When the Massey Ferguson FE-35 came rolling into the shop, it was a mess.
“It was in pretty gross shape,” said Shelton. “Most of us girls were pretty grossed out about it when we first started."
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Their job, under the close watch of teacher Ishley Elmore, was to make that old tractor new again. A team of six girls worked some 600 hours to tear the tractor apart, clean up the parts, paint it and get it running again.
“The boys try to come and help on the tractor,” said Elmore. “We tell them boys are not allowed."
The tractor restoration team at Krum is an all-girls club.
“A lot of guys will try and prove you wrong,” said team member Kennedy Brooks. “And tell you, you don't know what you're talking about."
To be sure, they do.
“All the boys would come up to me and ask me questions, like what's the cubic displacement of the engine,” said Shelton. “I'm like, it's 152 and I can tell you calculate that. Just ask me."
Any doubts about the ability of the tractor restoration team were erased this month at the ag mechanics show in San Angelo, where the only all-girl team beat out hundreds of others, to win the showmanship award.
“I'm so proud of them,” said Elmore. “I can't wait to see what they do after high school. It's gonna be endless opportunities."
The team from Krum isn’t finished with competition. They’re now getting ready for another show, later this month in San Antonio. To get the job done, it takes a strong team.
These ladies are the best.
“A lot of people would think you need a lot of manpower for this job,” said Brooks. “We have girl power. We did all the work ourselves, and we're very proud of that."
