The McDonald County High School Skills USA Teamworks team has qualified for nationals in Louisville, Ky.
Advisor Mark Kaufman said the team took first at district and first at state. The Teamworks competition involves a team of four students working together to build a structure. All four work on the carpentry to put up three stud walls. Then they specialize. One is a carpenter, because more carpentry is still to be done. One puts in plumbing, one puts in electricity, and one does the masonry. They get a blueprint when they get to the contest and must put it to work. At district, they had three hours to build their structure. At state, they built a larger structure that took 15 hours -- about two days. At nationals, Kaufman said, they will have a state meeting, orientation, present their plan of action, then build and tear down.
The team is comprised of two juniors and two seniors.
Senior Reece Cooper is the mason for the group.
"I did individual carpentry my sophomore year. I had a passion for Teamworks. You have more people to rely on and help you," Cooper said.
He said he sees himself pursuing a career in both carpentry and masonry.
Asked how he felt about nationals, he said, "I feel we have a pretty good chance if we practice and do what we know we can do."
Senior Dustin Greenup is the electrician. He said he was going to take masonry, but Teamworks member Blaine Bishop persuaded him to join the team instead, saying it needed an electrician. He already knew something about working electricity because he had taken an agriculture power class at high school.
He sees himself pursuing a career in carpentry.
He said he feels pretty good about nationals. "I think we can win," he said.
Junior Blaine Bishop is in charge of layout and plumbing for the team. He said he was going to take individual carpentry his sophomore year but ended up not taking it. Then when he ended up in Kaufman's carpentry class this year, he found out who was on the Teamworks team and decided to join because he thought they would work well together.
He said he sees himself pursuing a career in carpentry.
"I think we've got a good chance," he said of the national competition. "We're going to have to work at it to get first."
Junior Tryston Leach is the carpenter. He said he decided to take Kaufman's carpentry class this year and, when Kaufman asked who wanted to be on the Teamworks team, "We all decided to. We're all friends. So far we have worked together well as a team."
He said he sees himself pursuing a career in carpentry.
"I've got a pretty good feeling about nationals," he said. "I think we can win, but it's going to take a lot of practice and we're going to have to work harder than others. I think we can get it done."
Kaufman said, "They're a unique little group and they put it all together when they need to. You never know how it's going to turn out until they call your name. I'm proud of them. You can see a lot of teams fall apart when they're competing. They kept it together and they did what was needed."
General News on 05/16/2019