(WACO) – Camp Neff is proving to be good with his hands.
Neff, 22, of Franklin, Texas, is a Robotics Technology major at Texas State Technical College. He is also a dual threat playing banjo and table tennis — but not at the same time.
When Neff is not studying direct and alternating currents or the basics of robotics, he is playing banjo with the Fence Post Pickers featuring Charles and John Kirk as accompanying vocalists. The band performs throughout the Brazos Valley.
“We stick to tried, true and classic bluegrass and country,” Neff said, citing the late banjo picker Earl Scruggs as one of his favorite musicians.
Neff received the Gibson Top Tension banjo he currently plays as a birthday gift when he was 16.
“Instruments sound better the older they are,” he said. “The banjo has broken me out of any rut I was in before. I play the banjo and keep people happy.”
Neff was home-schooled and participated in high school robotics competitions.
“You have to do all the work yourself,” he said. “You have to have study time. You can’t do home schooling if you aren’t self-motivated.”
This discipline has helped him in his robotics classes, said Brandon McMahan, a TSTC graduate and Robotics Technology instructor.
“He is a great student,” McMahan said. “He is a leader in the classroom.”
The Robotics Technology program is based in the Robotics and Automation Lab in TSTC’s Electronics Center. McMahan said class sizes average 10 students who are divided up to work with robots.
“You can go straight into the job market,” McMahan said. “We teach students to be entry-level technicians.”
Neff is scheduled to graduate from TSTC in spring 2018.
“I’d like to travel and go from a distribution center to a factory to fix what does not work,” he said. “I want to see what is out there.”
Neff grew up on a ranch in Robertson County.
“I would stare for a half-hour at sugar ants to see what they were doing,” he said. “Nature is vast and complicated, and I experienced it growing up.”
Neff discovered the banjo when he was 12 while at a concert with his family.
“It sounded so different from the other instruments that I knew it was the one,” he said. “If I’m happy or sad, I can play and emote.”
Colee Littlefield, co-owner of Magnolia-based Texas Bluegrass Music LLC, said she admired Neff’s talent.
“It’s great that he started young,” said Littlefield. “It’s easy to train your fingers when they are nice, nimble and young. You are not concentrating as hard as you get older.”
Littlefield’s company organizes yearly bluegrass festivals in Bellville and Grapeland.
“The banjo player is pretty necessary for bluegrass,” she said. “Not every bluegrass band has a fiddle or a Dobro, but they usually have a banjo, mandolin, guitar and stand-up bass. Those are the four basic instruments.”
Neff also found his way to table tennis when he was 12. He primarily plays the game at TSTC’s Murray Watson Jr. Student Services Center. He recently won the table tennis competition at Techsan Day.
“A friend and I would play casually with a tennis ball when I was growing up,” he said. “I loved it and could be competitive with training. It is something to pass the time to keep from getting bored.”
For more information on Texas State Technical College, go to tstc.edu.
