He believes he has the delicate touch needed to win, created by the experience he’s gained from playing a video game.

But digging a hole with an excavator to build a farm, on a video screen with absolutely no pressure, is far easier than working the joystick on the real thing – in this case a 13-ton monster – to scoop up a golf ball onto a spoon, attached to the machine’s teeth, and dropping it into a narrow pipe.

That’s one of the events that will decide the champion in the Excavator Rodeo Sunday at the Deerfield Fair. Handling the joystick like it’s a live grenade is the key in this sport, said Brad Heckman.

But before Heckman got in the driver seat of the excavator, he was playing the part of short-order cook Thursday, feeding the masses as they arrived during the first day of the Deerfield fair. With his signature dexterity, he flipped blueberry pancakes like a seasoned pro.

Heckman turns 25 on the day of the rodeo. He thinks he might be the youngest contestant in the field. He thinks that could work to his advantage, because the middle-aged men who have entered, probably don’t have the passion for video games, or even play them at all.

“At least I hope that’s the case,” Heckman said.

The Excavator Rodeo began four years ago, a relatively new addition to the fair. Massive pieces of heavy machinery must move objects around, combining delicacy with speed in a race to secure low enough times to advance to the next round.

Disqualification results from various circumstances, like dropping a basketball and not being able to retrieve it without moving the machines’s tracks, which act as the excavator’s wheels.

These are professional people whose careers have been passed down through the years, and have been to the annual fair countless times.

“My whole family has been involved,” said Cindy McHugh, the superintendent of the Excavator Rodeo who’s worked at the fair for more than 20 years. “My father, my brothers, my husbands, my sons.”

McHugh said one excavator is used for all competitors, with limited practice to get a feel for the machine. Excavators behave differently, some faster than others, some slower, some smoother.

“If you’re an operator, you’re an operator,” McHugh said. “Let them in and swing it around. We say, ‘If you use it and do this for a living, you should know how to use any of them.”

They learn young, often following dad to work to get their feet dirty. Nick Critchett of Candia, who’s 34, joined his father at work starting at about 12 years old. He began small, digging with a shovel while his father excavated. He was known as the ground guy back then.

By high school, he was working on the monster. In his early days, as a labor foreman, Critchett used a rubber tire excavator, cleaning up job sites and digging to install pipes.

“I always watched my father as a kid,” Critchett said. “I loved heavy equipment and got my mind set to what I wanted to do for the rest of my life.”

Like Critchett, John Miles of Deerfield began as a ground guy. Unlike Critchett, Miles had no formal training on an excavator when he landed a job eight years ago. 

He learned on the job, watched closely by the grizzled veterans, who never let him get away with much.

“You’re working around guys with a lot more experience,” said Miles, 31. “I had zero. They’re watching me and critiquing me. You watch them and try to learn. I couldn’t do any of it at first. I heard a lot of screaming and yelling.”

Even those with experience say the job remains intimidating. These machines can weigh 100,000 pounds or more. You need to be sharp.

“If you have a foggy mindset, you will not perform,” Critchett said. “It’s not like anyone can hop in the seat and do it. If you don’t know, you can make a mess. A broken pipe, damaged property, abuse of the machine. The best way to learn is to find out the hard way. Accidents happen.”

Miles cited “finesse and patience” as major factors needed to be good at the job.

This is precise stuff. Like lifting a chain, attached to a pin about 6 inches long and 1/2-an-inch wide, and dropping the pin into the small opening on top of a traffic cone.

Or lifting a circular weight and placing it snuggly into a circular space, with little room to spare, reminiscent of a child fitting circles and triangles into matching holes.

Heckman will be cooking breakfast this weekend for fair goers, flipping pancakes with a turn of the wrist like he was born in a diner. He’s planning to use that same light touch to control a giant piece of machinery.

Heckman hopes he’s attained those qualifications by farming at home. On a screen, using a smaller version of the joystick that he’ll use on Sunday.

 “My uncle would let me in to use it,” Heckman said. “It was pretty exciting. I compared it to a video game. That might help.”

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