By Caleb Bailey, Correspondent

Long County High School’s SkillsUSA chapter is entering its third State Leadership and Skills Conference and this year the team won its first region championship.

On Friday, January 16, sophomore Todd Hamm competed in the Region 7 championship for Extemporaneous Speaking and took the Gold medal. This was the first time the Long County chapter competed at the region championship and Hamm’s first SkillsUSA competition.

Hamm is one of 21 students who will now advance to the State Leadership and Skills Conference in Atlanta from February 19-21 to compete for a state championship.

Some competitions are automatically qualified for the state conference and require no previous qualifier. In 2024, the chapter’s first year of existence, Long County won the state championship in Interactive Application and Video Game Design and advanced to that year’s National Leadership and Skills Conference, also in Atlanta.

Last year, Long County won the state championship in Scriptwriting and placed second in Interactive Application and Video Game Design.

The Long County chapter also had six other state qualifiers with the team of Jaylah Davis, Quentin Barbee, Rylee Gilbert and Santiago Rivera Marrero placing in the top 16 for Video News Production, Kaydn Meyers placing seventh in Photography, and Ireland Clayton placing third in Culinary Arts.

Ten others also will compete at the state conference in February with 18 total students attending the conference.

SkillsUSA’s mission is to empower students to become skilled professionals, career-ready leaders, and responsible community members. They are a national organization for middle, high, and post-secondary schools that looks to empower students to be career ready without needing a fouryear or professional degree.

Long County High School’s chapter is advised by Audio-Video Technology and Film instructor Caleb Bailey and is in its third year of existence.