The construction SkillsUSA team hosted this year’s district seven building trades competition Feb 9. Students received seven medals and had five students advanced to state.
The SkillsUSA building trades is a competition that offers participants the ability to show their skills in construction. The competition is equivalent to a regional contest and finalists qualify for state. Competitors only get five hours to build their projects, following plans and materials that they are required to use.
The students who continued into state competition include: Damien Gutierrez, Gold Carpentry; Travis Bradberry, Gold Tool ID; Jose Arellano and Piper Smith, Silver Material ID; Maximiliano Carreon, Gold Masonry; Cristian Muniz, Silver Masonry.
“I felt accomplished and proud of myself that I advanced,” Gutierrez said. “I competed because I want to work in this type of work in the future so getting first place got me one step closer to my future.”
Smith said she was excited to advance.
“I decided to compete because I felt I would help grow my skills for construction,” she said. “I’ve only been taking the construction course for one year, but construction runs in the family.”
Bradberry has also been in the class for only one year and said he proud to have accomplished in this field.
“I decided to compete because I wanted to represent the school,” Bradberry said. “I feel really excited to advance and see all my hard work pay off.”
Preparations for the event were organized by Ignacio Sauceda, building trades teacher, and materials were paid for by SkillsUSA.
“I had certain guidelines to follow for every contestant that was given to me by the SkillsUSA district 7 director,” Sauceda said. “I did have all of my students help with preparations the day before as well as TAFE (Texas Association of Future Educators) help on the day of the event.”
Students that compete are given very specific plans and have to build their structure accordingly.
“In the tool identification contest the students will have to ID 100 tools with accuracy and correct spelling,” Sauceda said. “Material ID will have 50 types of material used in construction that have to be identified accurately and very specific.”
All five students will continue towards state competition. They are set to compete April 3 and 7 at Corpus Christi.