SCCTC junior wins state in brick laying
May 18—PORTSMOUTH — One local student at Scioto County Career and Technical Center (SCCTC) is laying the groundwork for himself one brick at a time in the world of bricklaying.
Eon Spears recently won first place in the state of Ohio in the Skills Ohio Brick Laying Contest held in Columbus. Spears, with that win, will now advance to the Nationals in June.,
"They are doing the Nationals a little different this year and each state is going to do them at the student's home school. They are going to do it virtually, and I'm assuming that they are going to have a judge come in and judge the project after he is done," Larry Moore, Spears' Masonry teacher at the SCCTC said. "I'm not sure how they are going to do that, but they would have to have someone come in in order to judge it the correct way. There are just certain things that you just can't pick up on a video."
Spears is a junior at the SCCTC studying Masonry under Moore. He said that he had not done anything in the field of Masonry before he started this year at SCCTC. Moore said that Spears is a left-handed South Webster boy. Moore graduated from South Webster himself.
Spears spoke on what he had to do and how he had to prepare the wall he built for the competition.
"Mainly making sure when I built the wall to keep it all neat and straight, Spears said. "Making sure it all looks correct and it's all built how the design is set up. It took a total of three hours to build everything and clean everything up."
When asked if he knew his project was that good Spears said, "At the time, I wasn't sure how well I did, cause some of the other people looked like they did pretty good as well."
Spears shated that he was nervous at the time and that he is normally a very quiet guy, so he just gets busy with what he has to do.
"I was really excited and I started telling all my family and they were excited that I won, Spears said.
Spears shared that Moore has been a good teacher and taught him well in his field and that he has learned a whole lot as a junior this year.
Spears explained that even though he doesn't get to go anywhere to do the Nationals, that he is looking forward to them.
Moore said that they have been sent a material list but Spears won't get the blueprint until the day of the contest. It will be completely different for him, but Moore saI'd with the list, it gives him a kind of idea of what project it will go toward.
Moore sJared that even though he will just be there at the SCCTC for the project, Spears will have to come in and do some practice work with him before the competition, because he would like to see him make the top three.
When speaking with Spears about his senior year and job prospects, Moore injected that Spears had just then returned from a job interview for the summer and that he did get hired to do this kind of work this summer, just as a junior.
Spears shared that his job starts on Monday and it pays very well. Spears said about going to work, that he is very excited.
Spears explained that as far as what kind of job prospects he may have at the end of his senior year and if he would be willing to move out of the area if there were some really good ones, he would like to stay around here, but if an offer and opportunity was really great, he would be willing to move.
Reach Kimberly Jenkins (740)353-3101 ext. 1928
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