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Winners of a statewide welding contest won’t be announced for about a week, but eight Warsaw and Tippecanoe Valley students gave it their best Tuesday afternoon in pursuit of a plaque and bragging rights.
Lakeview Middle School was host to one of four sites for the state welding competition for Indiana FFA, according to Joe Martin, Indiana FFA program specialist.
“Students will come and they will weld different pieces together. Those will then be taken back to Indianapolis to be judged today. And those are judged based on the quality of the welds, the strength of the welds and safety as well. And they also take a 50-question test on the industry,” Martin explained.
He said it takes a little while to judge all the welds as there are over 200 high school contestants competing across Indiana.
“We choose a first place in the beginner division, which are freshman and sophomores; first place in advanced, which are juniors and seniors; and then they’re in teams of two, so we select a top team; and a top FFA chapter which did the best across the board” Martin said.
The judges for the contest are officials from the American Welding Society, according to Chris Moor, Warsaw Area Career Center welding instructor.
Sixty-six students registered to compete at Lakeview. Along with the students from Warsaw and Valley, students came from Central Noble, Culver, East Noble, East Side, Columbia City, Southern Wells, Blackford, Heritage, Adams Central, Westview, Prairie Heights, Eastbrook, Garrett and Churubusco high schools to compete.
The participating Warsaw students were Ethan Miller, Hunter Lane, Jacob Baker and Zachery Elkins; with the Valley students being Jeremy Gagnon, Dylan Wood, Chloe Hostetler and Jacob Eherenman.
Beginner students have 20 minutes to do their stick welding, while advanced students do MIG and stick welding and have 25 minutes, Martin said. MIG welding is an arc welding process in which a continuous solid
wire electrode is fed through a welding gun and into the weld pool, joining the two base materials together, according to millerwelds.com. Stick welding, is a manual arc welding process that uses a consumable electrode covered with a flux to lay the weld.
“If they win, they will be recognized at the state FFA convention in June. They will receive a plaque. Bragging rights,” Martin said.
“Really, for all of our career development events, it’s an opportunity for them to gain experience in the career field. So gaining that knowledge, not only of how to weld, but about the industry through the test as well, so in all of our competitions that we do in FFA, that’s really the end goal is for them to learn about the careers that are involved in the agriculture industry,” Martin said.
Wyatt Law has served as the FFA State Southern Region vice president since June. A high school graduate from Bloomington, he was on hand at the Lakeview contest Tuesday and competed in the welding contest last year, placing second.
“It’s really intense. You only have 20 minutes to complete just a few welds. And you’re trying to get your machine set up, get all your settings right, that way you can make the best welds that you can on this one piece of material. You basically have one shot, and hopefully all the hours of practice and preparations have prepared everyone for that one shot that they get,” Law said.
Moor said welders are in high demand right now. “Most places never take the help wanted signs out of their yard, off their board or wherever. They always need welders,” he said.
Moor said Warsaw’s welding program accepts juniors and seniors. It’s a two-year program and includes students from Warsaw, Tippecanoe Valley and Whitko.
“We partner with Ivy Tech. It’s a dual credit program. They can earn up to 15 dual credits,” he said.
