Wednesday, January 15, 2025
SPRINGTOWN — Springtown High School’s Future Farmers of America chapter held its second annual welding competition in the Porcupine stadium parking lot.
North Texas FFA chapters and their welding teams came to compete in the highly anticipated ‘build-off.’ The Springtown welding team went into the competition with a big win from the day before at the ag mechanics build-off hosted by the Boyd FFA chapter.
The Springtown competition was Dec. 6 from 9 a.m. well into the afternoon. The Springtown welding team consisted of Hugo Martinez, Wyatt Castillo, Ronnie Silva and Mark Munez. Martinez was not able to be there, but the rest of the team welded together a cowboy cooker as its project of choice.
Lead welding instructor James Young said this project in particular was more technical for the team but still a good, solid build.
“It's a cool build,” Young said. “This one is a lot more fabrication-based, because we just gave them all the raw material. So, they had to lay everything out, follow the blueprint accordingly and then they had to go ahead and make the cuts.”
The instructor emphasized the importance of helping his students beyond high school and wants them to be very knowledgeable in the field.
“My goal is I want these guys to be educated welders,” Young said. “That's a conversation that we have from day one with the kids. Now we're into the next phase. How do we reach out to local businesses? How do we set them up? And it's one of those that we're building partnerships with them because we want to get to a point where our seniors are getting ready to leave.”
Young also has colleges and technical schools come out and scout the team. Currently, Springtown FFA welding has relationships with Texas State Technical College, Lincoln Tech, Tarleton State University and more. The Springtown welding team ended up placing 10th in the competition.
For more information and updates about Springtown FFA, visit the Springtown FFA Facebook page.
