December 3, 2012
CONTACT: Gayle Lynn Falkenthal, APR
619-997-2495 or Email Gayle
Top apprentices named at San Diego Craft Championships competition
Winners will represent San Diego in national competition in spring 2013
(Poway, CA) - Twenty seasoned apprentices and craft trainees felt the pressure but prevailed over the competition to win honors as the top apprentice in their individual craft at the 12th annual San Diego Associated Builders and Contractors Apprenticeship Craft Champions Competition. The event took place at the Training Trust Academy on December 1.
The winners in each of three crafts - electrical, plumbing and sheet metal - won the right to represent San Diego in the 2013 ABC National Craft Championships in Birmingham, Alabama next May.
In the Electrical competition, the winner was Christopher Sweeney of Rowan Electric in San Diego. Second place went to Brad Parkinson of Bergelectric in Escondido; third place went to Timothy Hanson.The Plumbing champion is James Connolly of California Comfort Systems in San Diego. Jonathan Greene of Sherwood Mechanical in Poway took second place; Nikolas Van Alfen of Davis Mechanical in Vista took third place.
The Sheet Metal champion is Clayton Courter of Southcoast Heating and Air Conditioning in Vista; Kevin Sullivan of Brian Cox Mechanical in Poway took second place.
For the first time, the three champions scored a North County sweep. Sweeney is from Escondido; Connolly is from San Marcos; and Courter is a Vista resident. In addition, five of the seven companies represented by the medalists are based in North County.
The Associated Builders and Contractors San Diego Apprenticeship Craft Champions Competition tests the skills of the best of the best. The competition emphasizes the important role craft skills training plays in construction by evaluating contestants’ technical knowledge of their craft as well as their skill and talent.
Contestants must first successfully complete hundreds of hours of classroom training and thousands of hours of practical field experience to be eligible to compete. Apprentices and craft trainees who score high marks on the written exam are invited to participate in the skills portion of the competition to determine the San Diego local champions.
The competitors must race against the clock to complete a project as close to the specifications provided as possible, with only the materials they are provided. Judges observe them and then score each project. The project scores and written test scores are combined to determine the winner.
The San Diego ABC Apprenticeship Program has a long tradition of national winners, having won 11 medals in the last 11 years. Last year, sheet metal apprentice Jason McElveny brought home a Bronze Medal, the second year in a row that a San Diego sheet metal apprentice has been on the national winners’ podium.
About ABC San Diego
Associated Builders and Contractors is a national association representing more than 23,000 merit shop construction and construction-related firms in 75 chapters across the United States. The San Diego Chapter of ABC represents construction and construction-related firms throughout San Diego County. To find out more about ABCSD, visit www.abcsd.org.
