Grinders, tablesaws, hammers, and DA sanders. All tools used in the Skills USA State competitions. These annual competitions allow people to show off their skills in the different trades that are taught at Bingham or JATC.
The Skills USA competitions are split into individual sections, including welding fabrication, welding sculpture, automotive maintenance and light repair, and carpentry. In welding fabrication, a team of three built a motorcycle carrier in four hours. Bingham’s fabrication team included Ryan Swasey, William Minnick, and Tyler Blankman. They used a plasma cutter, chop saw, grinder, welder, and other tools to complete the project as quickly and accurately as possible. In an interview, Ryan Swasey said he competed because it was “a good team opportunity to work together with friends and have a good challenge.” He prepared by going to the regional competition and working on fabrication projects in welding class. In welding sculpture, Porter Anderton competed for Bingham and built a hand holding several flowers all made of metal. He built it over the past quarter of school. Carter Hansen built a dog house in the Carpentry competition for JATC, scoring bronze. Samuel Allen competed in the Automotive MLR competition for Bingham, going to various stations and completed tasks in a timed fashion and was scored at the end.
In Skills USA, competitors go up against some of the best in their area and age group. Because of this the competition is very stiff. Many of the high school teams in the welding fabrication competition did not get their project tack welded together, compared to the teams that placed and Bingham’s teams who were all neck and neck. In the carpentry competition they were very close, with the winner and third place apart by five boards. While the competitions are mostly decided by how well they do on their project, there are other factors that can affect their score and placement. For the fabrication team they had to make a video about a subject and a set of plans to get submitted and scored as part of their overall score. All of the competitions had at least one test they had to take as part of their score. This test was about job skills and other things related to work and sometimes their specific discipline.
On March 27th all of the competitors had the chance to learn if they won. The awards ceremony was held at Salt Lake Community College. The awards ceremony consisted of a stage where the Utah leaders of Skills USA sat and ran the meeting. They listed off the award winners and had a slideshow of the different competitions. Then they started the long list of competitions and those who placed.The prizes were anything from a Dewalt miter saw to a nice hammer and small other tools. The winners that went to Bingham were Evangeline Utley who took silver in the automotive refinishing competition, Logan Carney who took gold in firefighting, and Carter Hansen who took bronze in Carpentry. All of the competitors worked very hard and are getting rewarded with a pizza party after school in the welding shop to commemorate their achievements.
