Eleven HHS students headed for Skills Ontario competition

Featured photo: (back from left) Nathan Hossack, Connor MacInnis, Nick Barkwell, Bryce Voyer, Kelsey Murdy, Sheridan Wells, Caitlyn Gill; (front from left) Doug Nadrofsky, Alec Gibson, Scott Chapeskie, Sam Topps

By Jim Milne, HHS Manufacturing Technology Teacher

This year Huntsville High School will send 11 students to Skills Ontario at RIM Park in Waterloo from May 2-4. This is the highest number of students the school has ever had competing at the event, which has more than 2,000 competitors from all over the province of Ontario, as well as 20,000 spectators.

This year we have students representing Welding, Precision Machining, Culinary, Baking, Robotics, Custom Woodworking and Automotive Service Technician. Many of these students already participated in school board qualifiers and regional qualifiers. In the case of Welding, Nick Barkwell came first at a regional qualifier and Nathan Hossack was the highest placed runner up at a regional qualifier. In Automotive Service Technician, Connor MacInnis came first in a board qualifier. In Culinary, Caitlyn Gill came first again for the second straight year.

The students going to Skills Ontario are:
Welding: Nick Barkwell and Nathan Hossack
Precision Machining: Bryce Voyer
Automotive: Connor MacInnis
Cabinetmaking: Kelsey Murdy
Culinary: Caitlyn Gill
Baking: Sheridan Wells
Robotics: Scott Chapeskie, Sam Topps, Doug Nadrofsky, and Alec Gibson

At the competitions, the students will compete in their specialized field against other students from all over Ontario. At no time are the students allowed to get help from their teachers – they are on their own the whole
day. There is no advanced notice of the task and the students have to troubleshoot and problem solve real-industry problems and tasks on their own at a timed event. It is a great experience for the students and gives
them the opportunity to compete in an area where their passion is.

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