By Sherri Blevins
The Dekalb County Technology Center earned another National Championship at the 2023 National SkillsUSA Competition in Atlanta, Georgia. Brice Mayes, a recent graduate of Fyffe High School, won Gold in the National Masonry Competition.
MVN spoke with DCTC Masonry Instructor Scott Phillips about the championship. Phillips said, “Brice placed first out of thirty-two of the nation’s top masonry students, bringing home a gold medal in the national masonry competition. Mayes won Gold at the Alabama SkillsUSA competition in April, which qualified him for nationals, where only one winner from each category can represent the state at the national competition.”
Phillips said that Mayes and his fellow competitors were each given a blueprint of a brick-and-block composite wall and six hours to build it. The competitors had to use 138 brick and 24 concrete blocks to create the intricate design. They judged overall quality, measurements, plumb, level, straight, and square.
Phillips commented, “Brice joins an elite group of excellent students to ever come through the masonry program.” Mr. Phillips has taken students to nationals fourteen times in his thirty-one-year teaching career. He said his students have placed in the top three six times earning three silver medals and two bronze, and now Brice Mayes has brought the gold medal back to Alabama.
According to Phillips, the masonry gene runs in the family. Phillips said, “There is an interesting twist to this journey. Jon Mayes, Brice Mayes’s father, was one of those silver medalists back in 1998 in Kansas City, Missouri. It is so hard to express how honored and grateful I am having taught father and son twenty-five years apart. It turns out that Brice checks all the boxes just like his father did so many years ago. Brice came in with a smile and a great attitude each and every day, ready to learn. He has a work ethic second to none. He can take constructive criticism as well as any student I have taught. I would consider his greatest asset as carefully paying attention to detail. He wants his work to be as perfect as possible, and that is what I want and how I teach the trade. Those who know Brice would agree he is as good a young man as any teen around. I am proud of him. He deserved this. I would like to thank our Career Tech Director, Mr. Jonathan Phillips, and our Assistant Career Tech Director, Mr. Joey Haymon. I try not to ask for help, but when I do, these two are always there to help us with anything we need. There are also countless others that we work with that help in other ways. You know who you are. Thank you!”
Career Tech Director Jonathan Phillips added, “Winning a National Title in Masonry is one of the most difficult things to achieve at SkillsUSA Nationals. I am proud of Brice and Mr. Scott Phillips. Brice accomplished something that very few ever achieves, less than one percent of all SkillsUSA members win a National Championship. We appreciate everyone who supported us and made it possible for all our Alabama State Champions to compete at Nationals in Atlanta. Go, Miners.”