(WACO) – For Texas State Technical College students Joseph Hermann and Andres Zapata, Friday was a homecoming.

The Belton residents and TSTC Building Construction Technology majors visited Belton High School to take part in a simulated SkillsUSA TeamWorks build with students from their high school alma mater. The two groups will represent Texas at the 2018 National Leadership and Skills Conference in late June in Louisville, Kentucky.

“I want to see them succeed,” said Craig Sullivan, a construction trades teacher who taught Hermann and Zapata at the high school. “We want TSTC to be national champions as much as I do Belton.”

The groups worked in the shade of the high school’s career technical education building, which has a view of Tiger Field, home of the Belton Tigers. Some students watched as they walked by while changing classes.

“It is bittersweet coming back here,” said Hermann.

Students worked with building plans drawn by Michael Carrillo, a TSTC Building Construction Technology instructor, with input from Sullivan.

Carrillo said he designed the blueprints to be more difficult than what the students will encounter when they compete in Kentucky. The purpose was to develop the students’ decision-making skills and adaptability to various situations.

Randy Pittenger, president of the Belton Independent School District’s Board of Trustees, was one of the few school district leaders stopping by to see the build.

“It’s just interesting to see how they motivate each other,” he said. “SkillsUSA is a great program to prepare for job readiness.”

The TSTC group won first place at the SkillsUSA Texas Postsecondary State Leadership and Skills Conference held in early April in Waco.  Besides Hermann and Zapata, the team is made up of recent TSTC BCT graduate William Chance and electrical construction student Ricardo Delgado.

Delgado, 25, a lead electrician at Britco Structures USA in Waco, is new to SkillsUSA.

“This is the first practice, so I’m getting the feel of what will happen at nationals,” he said.

Hermann and Zapata said the team needed more practice before traveling to Kentucky.

“This has been a big wake-up call,” Zapata said. “Expectations are high. It feels good to work with this group again.”

Hermann and Zapata were on last year’s high school team that won the state and national TeamWorks titles.

The Belton group placed first at the state secondary SkillsUSA TeamWorks contest in early April in Corpus Christi. The team includes seniors Bailey Eickenloff, Antonio Hernandez, William Glaser and Lyhue Penny.

“At Belton High School, we believe SkillsUSA and TeamWorks give skills and experience to students to walk out of the classroom and go into the workforce,” said Jill Ross, principal.

For more information on SkillsUSA, go to skillsusa.org.

For more information on Texas State Technical College, go to tstc.edu.