From the same mold
Local brothers share welding interest, success
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| Brian and Pete LaRou of Morris are among the best young welders in the nation. Brian recently placed second in the nation at the SkillsUSA National Championship – a contest where he placed 41st last year. Pete also placed at state when he was a student at the Grundy Area Vocational Center. Soon he will be competing in the professional division. (Herald photo by Heidi Terry-Litchfield) |
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Grundy Area Vocational Center welding student Brian LaRou was within five-one hundredths of a point of placing first in this summer’s national welding competition, SkillsUSA National Championship. He wishes he would have garnered that tiny fraction more to put him on top, but he also knows that second place is nothing to sneeze at. It was a nationwide competition, after all.
SkillsUSA is a competition of more than 5,000 career and technical education students from 51 states. This year’s competition was held June 25 in Kansas City and included 91 different categories of trade, technical, and leadership fields.
The students competing were tops in their states, including LaRou, a graduating GAVC/Morris Community High School senior, who placed first in the Illinois SkillsUSA competition earlier in the year.
Even more unusual, LaRou came in first at state his junior year, too, a feat practically unheard of.
But LaRou wasn’t satisfied with how he performed at nationals last year, even though he was a junior competing against mostly seniors. He placed 41st and wanted a chance to show he could do better.
He made it his mission to top out at state again this year and do better at his second chance at nationals.
“I learned from my mistakes,” he said. “I got two zero’s on a few different stick welds. This year, I focused on points I knew I was weak in.”
The national competition was a week-long event, beginning with an opening ceremony for the representatives of the 51 states competing. Students competed in such categories as culinary arts, firefighting, graphic communications, first aid, dental assisting, electronics applications, masonry, nail care, nurse assisting, photography, robotics technology, web design, and welding.
The second day of the national competition involved meetings about the rules. Written exams were given on the third day, and the hands-on competitions were held the fourth day.
The hands-on part of the competition was an all-day affair. It was eight hours of tig welding aluminum, torch cutting, stick welding, and two processes of mig welding.
Students were given blue prints of projects to weld, and they had to do them without help.
LaRou entered the day full of confidence and hopes, but right off the bat, he suffered an injury that almost disqualified him.
“I burned my hand,” he said. “It was a very long weld. It was a vertical weld. My brother had just told me that morning that if I could just go from top to bottom without stopping, it’s better.”
The difficulty, LaRou’s GAVC welding instructor Jim Cebulski explained, is that no one else is able to help the students hold pieces in place while they weld. Holding a piece can get dangerous if their hand is too close to where they are welding.
LaRou was wearing welding gloves, but just the same, he could feel his hand getting very hot. He remembered that the judges liked the vertical welds to be done from top to bottom without stopping, so he just continued on.
“It was getting pretty hot,” he said. “I just bit the bullet and went through it.”
When he was through with that weld, he removed his glove and saw a huge blister on his left hand.
“I didn’t tell the judges,” he said. “I didn’t want to make a big deal out of it. But one of the judges saw it.”
The judge asked LaRou to take care of it, but LaRou said he’d rather just continue. The students were only allowed an hour to complete each project, and LaRou was under the gun to get each one completed in a timely fashion while maintaining quality.
The judge, though, told him he would be disqualified if he did not seek immediate medical attention at the medical station.
LaRou literally ran the length of the convention hall to the nurse, accompanied by a judge since competitors can not be left alone during the competition. The nurse asked him to pop the blister, she put some ointment and a bandage around it, then LaRou returned to the competition. He made it in time and finished the project.
The burn was a bad one, though. It’s still in the healing process, he said.
The remaining competitions that day were painful with his burn, but the injury made LaRou even more determined to do well. Taking second place was a bittersweet victory. Coming only a fraction of a percentage from first was difficult for him to come to terms with, but a month after the competition, LaRou admits it was quite an honor.
He said he owes everything to his brother, Pete, and to his teacher.
“I just did what my teacher taught me,” LaRou said of Cebulski when asked how he placed so high.
It was also the dedication of Cebulski during practices that got him where he is. Before state, Cebulski would come in after hours several times a week to help his students practice. The week before state, it was every night and weekends. It was the same with helping LaRou before nationals.
GAVC Assistant Director Mark Hulbert said the GAVC welding students work very hard and are dedicated to the class and competitions. This year, GAVC welding students took 17 of the top 26 places at the state competition. No other GAVC students went to nationals this year besides LaRou.
But it’s their teacher that’s the reason so many GAVC students, such as LaRou, have excelled at high-level competitions.
“Mr. Cebulski is a certified welding inspector and a committed instructor who loves to see students succeed,” Hulbert said. “He knows the welding industry very well and knows what it takes to be successful in the industry and in life.”
Hulbert said Cebulski and his students frequently come in before and after class to work on their skills.
“Mr. Cebulski schedules training/practice time in the evenings and on weekends,” Hulbert said. “It’s common to find 15 to 20 students attending the evening and weekend training sessions. One day last year we had to cancel school due to the weather. We still had welding students showing up to practice and they were not pleased when told they couldn’t practice as a result of school closing.”
Hulbert said he was proud of LaRou for placing at nationals.
“During nationals, he severely burned his hand,” Hulbert said. “Most people would have stopped competing in the contest. Brian gutted it out. That is a true example of his character and determination. He is a great person with a great work ethic. He will do well in life.”
Cebulski agrees.
“For nationals, we would work two or three nights a week after school, until 10 or 11 at night,” he said. “Until we could barely shut the lights off. Brian did so well because he listened to everything I told him to do. His work ethic is second to none. It’s immeasurable. I’ve never seen it in anyone his age. Whatever this kid does in life, he’s going to be great.”
And now, Cebulski and LaRou are meeting evenings to help LaRou’s older brother, Pete LaRou, prepare for a national competition, himself.
Pete also took first place at SkillsUSA when he was a GAVC student. Now, as a professional pipefitter, he is competing in the professional version of the welding competition in August.
“Pete is the best apprentice welder in this part of the country,” Cebulski said.
Pete LaRou is currently working in Michigan in the Local 597 Pipefitters.
