SRSS students win gold at Skills Canada Manitoba competition

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This article was published 04/05/2025 (326 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It takes skill, patience, and practice to win gold in any event and Connor Brick and Reanna Friesen have that in spades after the two Steinbach Regional Secondary School students won gold at the Skills Canada Manitoba competition on April 10.

“What I really like about Skills (Canada) Manitoba and Skills Canada is it allows students to push themselves beyond their limits and so far we’ve never had a kid that’s gone to any skills competition, whether provincially or nationally, where they haven’t come back as a changed person. Their work ethic has improved, their outlook, their belief in themselves has gone up, and those are really positive experiences,” said wood working instructor Merle Schmidt.

Woodworking student Brick won his competition by building a table with a cabinet inside. He said it took patience to build the table as he had to wait for one component to dry while he worked on another.

“You need to be calm, have a level head, so you don’t rush and make mistakes and you have to be patient…,” he said.

“When I was going in, I didn’t expect to get gold. I figured my friend Tyler would get Gold but I was pleasantly surprised when they called my name for the gold medal,” said Brick.

The 18-year-old said he wants a career in carpentry and took up the trade in high school after trying it out for the first time in Grade 9.

“It’s something that I’ve always been interested in…I just really loved it and I thought it would be fun to keep going. And I also work summers at a residential construction business here in Steinbach – Springwood Homes. We did framing, I’ve done concrete and a little bit of interior finishing as well,” he said.

“I really like building things with my hands and being able to tell people, ‘Look at that house over there. I helped build that house,’ and it’ll be a legacy that will stand for a while.”

Brick’s talents extend beyond house building into fine furniture. He built his own cabinet for records out of walnut, which took a month to make. He said it was his most intricate piece to date.

“It feels good to take the raw materials and put it together into something that looks good and is also functional,” he said.

“Connor is a great student. He’s the first one to get here and the last one to leave. He’s like an athlete, he just wants to get the most out of his shop time. He’s really good. He listens during instructions, he watches, he still makes his own decision about which way he wants to go and I really like that because then his project is his and he owns it. His practice time shows it and his results will hopefully show really well in nationals,” said Schmidt.

Friesen came into welding also in Grade 9 when she took the Try a Trade course and found she loved welding and had a knack for it. She loves to work on Canadian Welders Bureau testing which focuses on the structural aspect of a weld.

“I find it fun and it pushed my limits and helps me grow to be better,” she said.

Friesen plans on becoming a welder after she graduates.

“I feel like it’s something that I’m good at as well as something I can grow in. I can continuously learn more and get better and I really enjoy the process of it.”

As for her win at provincials, Friesen said she was excited to hear her name called after she welded what looks like a Polaroid camera. She said she’s excited to go to nationals.

“She is a sponge she absorbs all the information we give her and it shows. She takes all the information and adapts it to her own. Welding is a little bit independent ability everybody has a different technique or different heat setting and she’s turned our settings that we’ve handed to her and created something out of it on her own path which shows her adaptability, and her ability to understand how the puddle will move and react in different positions and joints,” said welding instructor Thomas Wittebolle.

Friesen was asked if there should be more women in the trades and she said that if a woman has a desire to be in a trade then she should go for it.

“In our school I feel like, especially classes coming up, I’m definitely starting to see a lot more girls and it’s really exciting. I like that I can represent girls in the little bit that I’m doing. And I think it’s super exciting.”