Willard’s Dale wins silver medal in SkillsUSA Nationals

Brookline’s Aiden Stich awarded Skill Point Certificate

A recent Willard High School grad took second place in his area of competition at the 2025 SkillsUSA Championships. Jevin Dale, 18, was awarded the high school silver medal in Telecommunications Cabling during the event, which was held in Atlanta, Ga. on June 25-26.
Telecommunications Cabling, Dale said, is essentially work in establishing the physical cables used to transmit data on the World Wide Web and telecommunications.
“Telecommunications Cabling is anything that deals with any type of cabling that makes the Internet go, or cell phones. It even goes all the way back to … the telephone landline (and) how we get (information) from one side of the world to the other. So, it could be copper cables, your average Ethernet cable, all the way to the newer fiber optic cables, and all of that. So, it's the physical media that makes the Internet run.”
Dale said that he became involved in the Skills USA competition through the Dual Enrollment Program at OTC, where he is a student.
“I got to take classes during the day at OTC instead of going to high school,” he said, “and I still got credit, so I took it. As part of my degree program there, I had to take a cabling class there, and I really liked working with my hands … and there was a spot open to do that for (SkillsUSA).”
This was actually Dale’s second time competing at SkillsUSA; he and a friend also took part in the event in 2024. 
“Last year … I got second at Districts (and) my buddy won (first, and the) top two go on to State. I beat my buddy out at State last year, and then I got fourth place at Nationals.
“And then this year, I was like, ‘Well, I might as well do it again.’ (I won) first at District, first at State, and then second at Nationals.”
At Nationals, Dale said, he had the opportunity to also receive some hands-on training.
“This year, they kind of broke it down into a Fiber Optic Day and a Copper Day,” he said. “So the first day was fiber optics. We (received) training because of the specialized equipment that fiber optics (requires) to terminate and test. Not every school in the nation has this kind of money and opportunities to get that, so Corning had reps come out and teach us how to do that. Although OTC does have the equipment, it was nice to have them come out and refresh me on that.” 
Besides technical skills, Dale said, the competition also focused on how well a competitor could handle a difficult customer.
“They also added a phone call with a so-called angry client,” he said, “where we had to walk through and kind of de-escalate the situation and walk him through how we planned to fix one of their issues that they came in calling about.”
Dale said that he uses the skills he learns at OTC in his job at Pitt Technology Group in Springfield, where he is a network operations specialist.
“I have to use those skills every day,” he said.
Currently, Dale is pursuing two associate’s degrees at OTC, one in information technology infrastructure and another in cybersecurity. After he graduates, he plans to continue working full-time while pursuing his bachelor's online at Western Governors University.
Dale was not the only OTC student recognized at Nationals. Aidan Stich, of Brookline, was 
awarded a Skill Point Certificate in Electrical Construction Wiring. Attempts to reach Stich for comment were unsuccessful as of press time.