NAPOLEON - In Napoleon, kids in blue corduroy are way cool.

They made history at this year's National FFA Organization convention in Indianapolis.

A team of four won a national championship and another team was named runner-up.

This is the first national championship for the school and the first for North Dakota under rules that prohibit handpicked multi-school all-stars, like ag mechanic teams that won in past years.

This was all Napoleon, all the way.

And for adviser Brian Schneider, it was far from a fluke.

FFA has had a long, congenial relationship with Napoleon, from back in the day when it was the Future Farmers of America club for farm boys, until now in its evolution as a skilled agriculture and career-focused organization for boys and girls.

The organization made something of a comeback in the last two decades, with more than a half-million student members nationwide.

Just about all the Napoleon students belong and it's not about goofing off. Champions aren't made that way, says Schneider.

"We have fun, but we're pretty serious about our success," Schneider said.

Since 1991, Napoleon has had 68 state champions and championship teams, making it, like his jacket says, "The Chapter of Champions."

Now, the chapter boasts four national champions.

Cole Laber, Andrew Young, Alison Moser and Morgan Schwartzenberger put as much time into getting ready for their event in agricultural sales as the wrestling team does for a state match.

All but Young, who's in his first year at North Dakota State University, are high school seniors. They are polite, bright and articulate, surely Napoleon's pride and joy.

The ag sales event requires that they pick a product to "sell" to judges, who rate them for their professionalism, poise and proficiency with the product.

Knowing they would have seven minutes to make their individual presentation, the kids picked a Bosch drill as their product, because it has several demonstrable features, but not too many, as would a tractor or another similarly complex ag product.

Moser said she enjoys the ag sales competition, which falls under the career development skills, so much because it depends in part on personality and improvisation, rather than purely memorized knowledge.

"You have to use your social skills," she said.

Schwartzenberger said the team met three or four times a week to practice "selling to each other."

Young said judges at the spring state qualifying event at the Valley City Winter Show told them they'd "blown the other teams away. At the national, they were amazed at our tactics."

Moser said the national judges, who represented major agricultural industries, "told us we could all have jobs with their companies."

The four also took a written test and were given 30 minutes to prepare a marketing plan for a new-to-them product to present as a team to judges.

They were announced the champion among the 40 other school chapters competing in their event and were invited on stage in front of 20,000 people that evening. Among those in the crowd were the 12 other Napoleon FFA students who qualified for nationals, including a food science team that was named runner up in their event.

"It's a confidence builder," said Laber. "Doing this allows you to be comfortable with yourself."

Young was the team leader and now that he's in college, the national convention was his final hurrah with FFA. "When I walked out, it was really sad," he said

They were each awarded a $1,000 college scholarship as a championship honor.

All four say in one way or another, they'll use in life what they learned in FFA, everything from parliamentary procedure, to public speaking, to food and animal science, to sales and marketing.

They also blazed a trail for the all FFA kids who will come after them. They showed that those blue corduroy jackets are the warm up gear of champions.

(Reach reporter Lauren Donovan at 888-303-5511, or lauren@westriv.com.)