Scott Martin has turned his love of working on cars into success in competition and a way to build his skills. He was recognized by the Grain Valley Board of Aldermen Monday, after his participation in the recent Skills USA competition. His training in automotive service at the Career and Technology Center (CTC) in the Fort Osage School District led to Martin competing in the national competition. Shannon Lineberry | THE POINTE
Grain Valley?s Scott Martin never expected that a hobby he cultivated out of a friend?s garage would make him a top student in the automotive repair field. But after receiving state and national recognition for his skills as an automotive service technician, he should have no doubt about his place in the automotive world.
Martin competed in the Skills USA competition at Bartle Hall in June, taking top honors at the state level; that made him the only student in the history of the Fort Osage Career and Technology Center?s (CTC) automotive repair program to ever go to the national competition. Prior to his entrance into the national competition, the CTC had only placed as high as 3rd at the state level.
The competition tests students at 13 different stations. Students must evaluate and follow directions on all types of repairs, from how to check for leaks in your work gloves to how to check for bad sensors for air conditioning. Competitors have 22 minutes to complete each station.
Martin competed with 52 other high school students, placing a respectable 6th place out of the 52 competitors. All this with only a few days preparation for the competition, relying only on contest updates from the organization and attempt to round out his knowledge based on what he thought he might see on the exam.
?We get the contest update and we have a general idea. But we don?t know everything.? Martin said. ?Like we didn?t have a manual transmission to practice with, and that was on the test. Then we practiced using a scan tool. I went and met with some people from Toyota and they showed me how to navigate the scan tool.?
Martin graduated from Grain Valley High School this year and was a National Technical Honor Society recipient, student council member, soccer player, and was a four-year member of the robotics team. He also worked mission trips throughout high school, which earned him several hundred hours of community service.
But it was the call of the CTC program and his love of robotics that occupied most of his time. Martin said that his experience with robotics helped him get through the electrical pieces of automotive competitions much faster.
Based off of advice he got from a friend working on muscle cars in the garage, Martin entered the program at CTC his junior year of high school. He won the district competition that year, and was the only junior to make it to the state level, where he finished 6th out of 15 students at state.
This year, in addition to the national SkillsUSA competition, Martin also competed on May 10 for the Ford AAA Auto Skills Competition at Kansas Speedway. Competitors qualify for the contest by taking an exam that sends the top two candidates for state level competition. Once there, the students have 1 ? hours to fix 10 problems on a 2012 Ford Fusion.
To prepare for the contest, Martin and another student borrowed a Fusion from Blue Springs Ford and spent three weeks dismantling the car, checking its internal workings and getting to know every piece. Their diligence paid off and they finished all repairs on the car in 32 minutes. Despite having the only perfect car in the competition, the boys finished 6th.
Because automotive technology was always a hobby for Martin, he?s not sure what his career plans are at this point. He will be attending Pittsburg State University in Pittsburg, Kansas, a highly rated Division 2 engineering school. He plans to major in Manufacturing and Engineering.
?I?m hoping for an internship my freshman year,? Martin said. ?A lot of graduates go to John Deere and Case and Toro. The teacher there knows people around the world. You don?t know where you?re going to end up.?
By Shannon Lineberry | The Pointe Staff
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