Tea Area High School CTE Welding and Machine Tool Program

06/06/2026

What a week at National Skills USA Conference in Atlanta!

Nick Jones qualified in the individual welding competition by winning the state title in the welding competition back in April. He placed in the top half out of the top 50 high school welders in the country this week. An amazing accomplishment for a student who is only going into his junior year of high school. He learned a lot and is eager to get back and start getting even better to prepare for next years competitions.

We also brought Easton schelske who competed in the carpentry competition after winning his state title as well in our state competition.He placed right in the middle of the pack out of 48 of the nations best high school carpenters. Easton is going to be a senior next year and is also eager to get back and start preparing for next year.

Tucker Wingert and Landry Coy served as state officers for South Dakota Skills USA this year and were able to join us for The trip to support their friends and experience what skills USA is all about.

We had a blast at the event and also enjoyed some great food, fast track go cart racing, top golf and flying around city of Atlanta on some electric scooters! Memories for a lifetime!

Couldn’t be more proud of these gentlemen and how they represented our Tea Area High School and our Great state of South Dakota!

05/07/2026

Gage Little- a junior has by far been our winner as our most improved this year! This kid has put more effort than any other student I have ever worked with— he has spent countless hours under the hood trying to get better and better through all processes and positions and he even earned himself a 3rd place finish at state skills USA competition as a true underdog, super proud of you Gage! You are proof that hard work always pays off!

04/27/2026

Congrats Trey on your Build Dakota Scholarship signing day!

Trey is going to Mitchell tech this fall and partnering with DeGeest to start his welding career after graduation!

Awesome work Trey!

04/19/2026

04/10/2026

Titan Skills USA welders perform strong again at State!

April 9th and 10th our Titan welders competed in State Skills USA welding competitions and they brought home a state champion for the 3rd year straight along with sweeping the individual competition bring home all 3 top prizes of 45 contestants and some awesome prizes! Fab/weld team also brought home 2nd place out of 21 teams entered. Nick Jones was this year’s state champion and qualified to compete in Atlanta for the National competition in June.

We also had 3 of our contestants represent the state of South Dakota Skills USA as state officers.

Parker Wilson a former Tea Area student and competitor(2x state champion welder) also came and spoke to all competitors about the positive impact Skills USA has made in all things he does post high school.

It was a great couple days for our Titan Welders! Super proud of all of you and your Hard work!

04/02/2026

Finished up Kayak racks for South Dakota Game Fish and Parks today- loaded up and ready for use this summer!

04/02/2026

Our welding 4&6 classes had a great time touring Spartan ERV and Marmen energy today!