Ponoka’s most skilled high school tradespeople came out of the woodwork to bring home six medals from Skills Canada provincials.
The unusually young team, consisting of two Grade 10 and four Grade 11 students, dominated regionals and took to provincials with the same strong attitude.
Although Dustin Sejdl won gold at both events for cabinet making, for him, provincials were a lot tougher. It’s a big step from making a wooden box to crafting a small table with a sliding drawer.
“It had to be a lot more perfect and a lot faster than regionals,” he explained.
Sejdl walked into the Edmonton provincials confident in his abilities but not overconfident. “I knew I could do it perfectly but there’s always a chance of making a mistake. When you get to that level it’s really easy to make one little mistake that can throw you off.”
Provincials were held at a career expo and the hordes of people walking by and staring as they competed was one of the biggest challenges for the students.
For Josiah Pilon, who took silver in carpentry at both regionals and provincials, the crowds were the biggest distraction.
Beside the people, the most intimidating part of the experience for Pilon was actually accepting his award. “I don’t like being in front of people.”
Pilon had 12 hours to construct a potting table with a partial roof. He finished in 11 hours but knows if he’d pushed himself it could have been done in five.
Instead Pilon, Grade 10, slowed down and used the hours for accuracy. “I just knew I didn’t have rush to it.”
The crowds were also a problem for the other Grade 10 competitor, Lisa Winter, who took bronze in wood joinery.
“It was scary and first. There was so many people walking by and people just stop and stare at you,” said Winter.
“It’s a lot of pressure. They’re just staring at you and you’re scared you’re going to mess up,” she added.
Despite her younger status, the older competitors had no effect on Winter, who practiced all year and knew she was prepared. “We’re all in high school.”
Provincials were also more of a challenge for wood joinery silver medalist Cody Krenzler. “I’m not a competitive person.”
He wanted the competition to serve as an experience that could evolve into a career.
Krenzler’s favorite part was finishing his project. “I felt pretty good. I completed the project in the time given and felt pretty good about it. I guess you could say I felt pride in my work.”
“Unruh (Ponoka Secondary Campus’ construction teacher) seemed to think I could do it so I didn’t see why I couldn’t,” he added.
For the second year, Jen Sidwell competed in the job skills portion, using tree grafting as her topic. She also took gold.
Although she doesn’t have trouble speaking in front of people, Sidwell didn’t have much confidence walking into her competition. However, moments before she was set to speak her nerves calmed. “Unruh was making faces, I was laughing like an idiot.”
Sidwell had a feeling she was going to place, she just didn’t know where.
And if she hadn’t, she would have been disappointed. “I’m really competitive with myself. But with other people, I’d be happy to see someone who did genuinely good win.”
It was also Andrew Jones’ second year competing, and although he placed only sixth in the job search category, he took home a safety award.
“I thought I was doing fairly well. I didn’t end up as well as I wanted but I still did fairly good.”
Jones had prep work before provincials in the form of an essay, cover letter and resume that had to be emailed in. For the competition he was run through a mock job interview.
During the interview some of Jones’ questions related to safety. “I gave them an answer, I guess they liked mine.
“The field this year was pretty strong so that was one of the bigger challenges. I was stronger than anticipated. The good thing is I have next year.”
“Ponoka high (school) should be set for the next two years winning medals with these kids,” said Unruh.
Sejdl, Pilon and Sidwell will attend Skills Canada Nationals in Vancouver, BC. June 5 to 8.