KATC Welding

This group came in as boys and girls starting their junior year last year, and today they have all officially walked out as young adults for the last time before graduating. They were the first ones to start this welding program and have been a part of this place growing for 2 years now.

People complain about today’s youth not wanting to work, well I invite anyone and everyone to come and watch an average day around here, these young men and women will quickly change that mentality! They all are hardworking, well rounded adults and I couldn’t be more proud of them!

Congratulations, and good luck on all of your future endeavors!

Left to right: Maddux Jackson, Gavin Hoerrmann, Caleb Grissom, Jaiven Smith, Keegan Wehner, Morgan Crawford, Cade McCarty, Chance Snyder, Austin Martin, and not pictured Sheldon Breuklander.

We have a winner! Congratulations to Keegan Wehner for being the winner of our March Madness welding tournament. Congratulations to Maddux Jackson as well for placing 2nd.

This last round really tested their skills and pushed them out of their comfort zones. It was a great tournament overall and hope everyone enjoyed it as much as I did.

Thank you to Slickman Welding Apparel and Outlaw Leather for supporting our welding program to be able to reward these young men for all the hard work they have put in to get this far. They produce results, not excuses.

And then there were 2! We completed our semi-finals round of our March Madness welding tournament, moving on to the final showdown is Keegan Wehner and Maddux Jackson! Congratulations to both of these men for making it this far, luck will only get you so far in welding so for them to make it this far shows they have earned their places with true skill and hard work!

February 13, Caleb Grissom competed at the district level welding competition against 7 other schools in our SkillsUSA district and won first place 🥇 and qualifying to move on to the state level competition that was held today where he competed against the other district competition winners throughout Missouri at State Technical College in Lynn, MO. While we won’t find out the results until tomorrow, we are keeping our fingers crossed for a trip to nationals where he will compete against the other 49 state welding competition winners in Atlanta Georgia this summer!

This young man gives it 100% every single day, he doesn’t give excuses. He’s got grit to bear down and work even harder when the going gets tough and pushes himself every day to be better than he was the day prior and that’s what it takes to become a successful welder! Regardless of outcome we find out tomorrow, I’m extremely proud of Caleb and he’s had one heck of a successful year, placing in every single welding competition we have attended.

-If you don’t know what SkillsUSA is, as I didn’t either until becoming a welding instructor last year, I’d say it’s worth looking into! It’s a way for students enrolled in our technical programs to be able to showcase their knowledge and skills they have learned while in our programs and compete against others at the district level of NEMO, up to the international level.

Once again! Congratulations to Caleb Grissom for placing 5th over all out of roughly 200 welders that competed last Friday at the Grand River Welding Institute welding competition! Caleb shows up ready to work every single day, doesn’t cut corners and stays consistent in everything he does and it is truly paying off for him this year! Congratulations again, Caleb!

We’re down to the SEMI FINALS in our
March Madness Tournament!

Quarter finals challenge consisted of students having to follow blueprints to build and weld the 5 structural weld joints. It challenged their ability to follow blueprints, maintain heat control while welding and showcase their craftsmanship. We even had a tie between 2 competitors and had to turn it up another notch for a tie breaker!

Congratulations everyone moving on to the semi finals!
-Cooper Claybrook
-Maddux Jackson
-Keegan Wehner
-Sheldon Breuklander

(Sorry I didn’t get pictures of all the competitors this round)

Congratulations to Maddux Jackson for passing his AWS D1.1 structural bend tests! There’s only 1 way to success and it’s hard work and dedication! Keep up the good work!

We were finally able to get round 1 of our March Madness Tournament all wrapped up!

Moving on to the Quarter Finals:
Cooper Claybrook
Morgan Crawford
Maddux Jackson
Gavin Wood
Jackson Hocker
Keegan Wehner
Sheldon Breuklander
Gavin Hoerrmann

1st round was very basic to test their fundamentals. Judging wasnt easy, there were just very slight imperfections that went into account for choosing a winner and loser. each round will continue to get harder and challenge their abilities more and more, and maybe even challenge their adaptability skills by having them weld in ways they haven’t done yet!

Stand by for further updates!

Thank you to Nathan Shaver, owner of Rafter S Custom Welding, LLC and Bobby Poston, owner of Poston Farms for their generous financial sponsorship donations to support us in going to State SkillsUSA on April 10 and competing in another welding competition against all the other 1st and 2nd place winners from all the other district skillsUSA groups throughout Missouri.

Thank you again, and if you need any custom welding done, be sure to contact Rafter S Custom Welding. His skill is unmatched!

In the spirit of March Madness for college basketball coming up, we decided to have our own March Madness welding tournament! Everyone drew numbers out of a hat for their placement. We’re starting out with an easy challenge this week, and as we dive deeper into this tournament things will surely get much more challenging and really test everyone’s abilities! Stick around for updates coming soon!

Forgive the highly unsightly tournament bracket. It isn’t pretty but it serves the purpose we need it for 🤣