Skills USA NC 47th Leadership and Skills Conference

Firefighting Contestants and Judges
Concord High School Fire Academy - Top 5 CHSFA on the Stage
Mission Accomplished! But read on - There is More...
On the Spiral Staircase
In Mrs. Black's Office
Not pictured - Trevor Cruse
At the Entrance to Greensboro Public Safety Academy

Score Sheet showing the Place,Name, Ties, Scores, and Test Scores



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The 47th Skills USA NC Leadership and Skills Conference was held in Greensboro, NC
April 17th -19th, 2012.

Last year, Chief Barlow was able to take 3 recruits to compete and they placed 2nd, 6th, and 7th in the Firefighting Competition. On the way home last year these recruits vowed that they wanted to put 5 members of our Skills Chapter on the stage and take home 1st through 5th place.
This year our 9 recruits that signed up for Skills USA NC Firefighting came from four of Cabarrus County's High Schools. Five recruits from Concord, two from Mt. Pleasant, one from Central Cabarrus, and one from Hickory Ridge. Seven were Seniors and two were Sophomores. Eight male and one female. Collectively they trained for this competition more than 500 hours.

During the briefing on Tuesday after the Techspo held at the Greensboro Colliseum, our recruits practiced their Skills and Knots. The other competitors all jumped in and learned as well. The morning of the Competition, all competitors again practiced while waiting for Greensboro Fire Department Engine 14-B to arrive. This crew served last year as the judges and would do so again this year. Chief Barlow served as the Coordinator of the Competition.
The competition this year was very close. While Chief Barlow and Mr. Albert Doleman of Salisbury tallied up the results and ranked the 20 competitors, the Concord High School Fire Academy recruits were touring the Greensboro Fire Academy and completing the Firefighter Combat Challenge. When they finished, the Battalion Chief of Training gave each of our seven Seniors an Application packet and told them that he would like to see the Application complete and on his desk on or before September 1st if they wanted to begin their career with the Greensboro Fire Department.

The results were quite surprising. There was a two way tie for 1st Place, a three way tie for second Place, another three way tie for third Place, and another two way tie for 4th Place.

Final Results were decided by scores on the Written Test taken at the time of Regionals.

RESULTS
First Place - Jacob Whitley - Concord HS Fire Academy
Will represent NC at the National Conference in Kansas City, Missouri in late June
Second Place - Brandon Blackwelder - Concord High School Fire Academy
Third Place - Taylor Beverly - Concord High School Fire Academy
Fourth Place - Will James - Concord High School Fire Academy
Fifth Place - Kyle Franklin - Concord High School Fire Academy
We had succeeded! We placed our 5 recruits on the Stage.
BUT.... There's More...
We skipped 6th Place... (We had to share) and took
Seventh Place - James Bellamy - Concord High School Fire Academy
Eighth Place - Kaitlin Wood - Concord High School Fire Academy
Ninth Place - Trevor Cruse - Concord High School Fire Academy
Tenth Place - Damon Davis - Concord High School Fire Academy

The most amazing thing is that the Ties were all with our own recruits and the Total Point Spread between 1st and 10th place was only 4 Points from 40 -44 out of a possible 50 points.
Skills USA NC Awards Ceremony - Firefighting Awards
Video at front and Awards are at the 1:22:00 mark
Update 3 has a bit of video