College leads many students in directions they never expected when entering as freshmen. But for Logan Scarborough, a North Carolina State U. senior in forest mangagement, college may lead to a national championship in a sport he knew nothing about when he first stepped foot on campus.
Scarborough, the president of the forestry club, entered campus with an interest in forestry and will be competing this fall for a national championship in the STIHL TIMBERSPORTS Collegiate Series.
Scarborough swept all four events of the Collegiate Series on the single buck, standing block chop, stock saw, and underhand chop at the Southern Qualifier held in Monticello, Ark. on March 25.
The result of the competition was reminiscent of the 2009 event in which Scarborough swept the first three events but was disqualified in the stock saw event for making a cut outside the allowed area. But this time, Scarborough was able to master the event with the help of a full year of practice.
“You don’t have to be strong, you don’t have to be fit, you don’t have to be anything for that event,” Scarborough said. “You just have to be really quick and precise with your cuts. [It took] practice, just practice.”
Graham Ford, a senior in forest management and vice-president of the forestry club, has seen Scarborough devote himself to his trade in order to be the best he can be.
“I’ve never seen anybody work as hard at something that he has completely taken upon himself,” Ford said. “He has become a lot more serious at training and getting better at his solo events. He understands that to be the best he needs to train and learn all he can.”
But Scarborough also gives back to the club that introduced him to the sport. When he came into the forestry club, he knew nothing about timber sports. The club introduced him to the events and he hit the ground running. After two years in the club, Scarborough assumed the presidency of it and has been working at promoting and improving the club, according to Charles Michael Cheston, a sophomore in forest management.
“When he took over the club, there was hardly any structure there,” Cheston said. “He made it into a well run club.”
Ford said Scarborough also teaches the younger members of the group.
“He is all about showing the younger guys what he is working on,” Ford said. “He is 100 percent about passing along the skills that he has gathered. We know that we came in having hardly any experience, so we understand that for them to make the club better, for them to keep going with it, they need to understand all the knowledge that we gathered.”
Scarborough’s success will do nothing but good for the club, according to Ford, who sees the attention as a way to captivate prospective members and gain support from the community.
“The exposure sheds more light on what we do and makes it come across in a really exciting way so people want to find out more about it,” Ford said. “Also, notoriety for the school and our club goes a long way for getting support from the faculty and department. We can’t do it all ourselves, so the notoriety from winning events goes a long way.”
And the club needs the support from the community, especially the College of Natural Resources, which provides a critical supply for it, wood.
“The College of Natural Resources owns multiple properties throughout the Southeast,” Scarborough said. “They own [a piece] in Durham County called Hill Forest. There is a substantial amount of white pine there that is not going to be used for anything because white pine isn’t used much around here, so they donate it to the forestry club.”
The Collegiate Championship will be held in conjunction with the 25th anniversary event of the STIHL TIMBERSPORTS Series at the Oregon State Fair in Salem, Ore., Aug. 27-29. The winner will win an automatic spot in the 2011 STIHL TIMBERSPORTS Professional Series. The entire Collegiate Series will air on ESPNU in the fall.
“Not only him going, but being on TV is going to be pretty big,” Ford said. “It is just exciting to be on TV. It’s like icing on the cake.”