Skills USA Montana State Conference:

46th Annual National Leadership and Skills Conference

On June 21-25, three Sidney Skills-USA Members, Abby Hermanson, Tyler Christenson and Larimie Kyhl all competed amongst the other 6800 competitors from across the nation. Each one had placed first in their skill area to gain the opportunity to compete at the national level. Over 11,000 Skills-USA Members attended the conference.

The conference started out with several orientation and familiarization meetings for the competitors in each of the skill areas. It was kicked off by a Talk from Mike Holmes who is known as the “Most Trusted Contractor” He host and created the present TV show Holmes for Homes. His mission is simple “Make It Right”.

There were several workshops held for contestants and advisors all through-out the conference, from New technologies, New tools for industry and New software presentations, were just a few.

Competing for Sidney was Abby in the Job Interview contest and also took part in the 5K run early Friday morning and placed 4th overall in the women's division, Tyler Christensen in Diesel Technology and Larimie Kyhl in collision repair.

The first place winners at nationals will go on to compete at Internationals in London this fall.

It is a great experience for the students to compete at this level and meeting people from across the nation.

37th Annual State Leadership & Skills Conference

On April 7,8,9 the Sidney Chapter of SkillsUSA attendended their 37th Annual State Leadership & Skills Conference in Havre at MSU-Northern. At the conference there were 32 Schools represented and 400 competitors is 40 different areas of competition. Sidney had 14 of its members attend the conference.

Competing were:

Beau Prevost and Casey Denowh in Job Interview,

Brady Bouchard and Tyler Christensen in Basic Welding, Chrys Crosby and Lyle Peters in Combination Welding, Chase Cvancara and Beau Prevost in Architectural Drawing, Chris Hart in Cabinetmaking and millwork, Brennan Gorder and Laramie Kyhl in Basic Wood Technology, Julia Haase in Technical Drafting, Jacob Kalberer in Technical Computer Aided Drafting, Matt Helmers in Collision Repair Technology, Ronnie Krieger and Casey Denowh in Arc Welding,

Jacob, Julia, Beau, Tyler and Casey competed in the Quiz bowl.

Placing in the top three for Sidney were Tyler in Basic Welding First Place, Matt in Collision Repair Technology Second Place, Julia in Technical Drafting Second place, Chase in Architectural Drawing First Place and Beau was second place in the Architectural Drawing Contest. Beau and Casey also made it to the semi-final round in Job Interview.

Each of the top three placers in each contest were awarded prizes of tools and scholarships.

Sidney's Terry Desjarliais and Matt Donavan won the state pin design contest, Their design was produced and used for the Montana state pin for 2008.

Former Sidney High School students Matt Norgaaurd and Dustin Merritt were competing in the post-secondary division of The Diesel Technology Contest. Dustin also completed his term as the 2007-08 State Officer, at the conference.

Another former Sidney graduate Kyle Welnel was there with his Band “The Sammus Theory” and held a concert on Tuesday night for the competitors and MSU-Northern students. This was coordinated by State Officer Dustin Merritt.