Youth Profile: Leipsic teen at home on the farm

LEIPSIC — For Ryan Mangas, a hard day's work fulfills him.“I like to work,” he said. “I like to keep busy. I can't just sit at home. I like to be out doing something.”Mangas, a senior at Leipsic High School, enjoys working on his family's farm.“I've lived on a farm all my life. I like the peace and quiet of it all,” he said. “It's hard work, but it's pretty fun. We have 1,500 acres of wheat, beans, and corn.”Mangas said he especially likes fixing machinery around the farm.“I'll work on engines or random machines. When I was young, I would take them apart, see how they work, even things I probably shouldn't have taken apart,” he said.“In shop, at school,” Mangas added, “we had to take apart a little push mower engine and put it back together, and I was the first one to finish, but the engine wouldn't start because I was missing parts at the end. My friends hid them from me. They thought it would be funny.”On the farm, Mangas said, he enjoys working with his two younger brothers.“Sometimes we fight over the jobs, like who gets to drive tractor, but I try to set a good example. Of course, I pick on them, too. It's kind of in the job title,” he said with a laugh.In the summer, in addition to working on his family's farm, Mangas bales hay and works as a farmhand at Rainbow Dairy in Leipsic.Mangas said he plans to study agricultural business and agronomy at The Ohio State University Agricultural Technical Institute in Wooster.“I plan on going into seed sales, selling them locally,” he said. “I like talking to all the farmers. I already know some of them from going around with my dad.”At the Putnam County Fair, Mangas has shown market hogs as a nine-year member of the Liberty Boys & Girls 4-H club.“I've always liked going to the fair, showing livestock, and working the shows with the Junior Fair Board,” he said. “It's fun to get to know people from all over the county.”This summer will be his third year volunteering with the Putnam County Junior Fair Board.At Leipsic, Mangas has been involved with FFA, Art Club, Science Club, Math Club, Spanish Club, and choir. In sports, he was a four-year varsity athlete in football for the Vikings, and he played basketball and baseball.