Furr competes at WorldSkills

Words: Lynn NashApprentice Daniel Furr of Concord, N.C. and his instructor/coach Todd Hartsell of Central Cabarrus High School represented SkillsUSA in the masonry competition at the August WorldSkills Conference in Sãn Paulo, Brazil. Daniel came just shy of a medal-winning score, building the three project-modules pictured above.

Using a scoring system somewhat different than what we are accustom to, twenty-eight competitors won eight masonry medals with top honors going to Italy with a “Gold” medal, Silver Medals going to Vietnam, Denmark, Brazil and Australia, and Bronze Medals going to Korea, Austria, and Germany.

Hartsell said, “Daniel missed receiving a medal by 10 points, but he did an outstanding job representing the US. The talent at WorldSkills was unbelievable and the experience was outstanding!”

Daniel is no stranger to masonry competition having won a SkillsUSA Gold Medal in 2014, the NCMCA David R. Sigmon Award in 2014, and the MCAA First Year Division International Skills Competition earlier this year. He studies engineering at
NC State University and was a high school masonry student of Ryan Shaver at Mount Pleasant High School.

Todd Hartsell is now the SkillsUSA “Masonry Expert” for WorldSkills and will have responsibility for selecting and training the USA masonry competitor for the next WorldSkills Conference two years from now in Abu Dhabi. Hartsell students have won six SkillsUSA National Gold Medals including a post-secondary gold medal in July by Alex Ossowski at Louisville.

Taylor Clay Products, Johnson Concrete Company and Amerimix provided special practice materials to mimic the contest materials encountered in Brazil when Hartsell and Furr were preparing for the contest during June and July.
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