On Tuesday, March 13, the talents of about 400 students from multiple schools were assessed during the forty-third annual High School South Coast Skills Day hosted by Coquille High School.

Students from across the south coast were sent to represent their school to compete in an array of categories including: manufacturing, mathematics, arts, music, drama and humanities.

Sophomore Andrew Sheerin was one of the 55 Marshfield students that went to this competition. He was the only Marshfield representative in his event, the Geography Bee, and placed second for the high school division.

“The geography bee is a series of tests and activities that are meant to assess your knowledge involving world geography and other pieces of information,” Sheerin said. “There are two divisions, novice and high school. In the high school division, a person must fill out a map of different continents and they must as well answer questions regarding history and etc.”

According to Sheerin, leading up to the event, he was anxious about how it would turn out. While he was waiting for people to arrive to where the event was held, he learned that there were many other strong competitors in his presence.

“My nerves were in shock but then I felt better once it all started,” Sheerin said.

For Sheerin, this Skills Day wasn’t his first. Sheerin has past experience in the same event in the junior high division. While in the junior high division, he placed second, and now being in the high school division he hopes to see many more victorious moments like this.

“I will definitely come back and compete next year,” Sheerin said.

However, for some it is their first time at the competition. According to freshman Taylor Waddington, this was her first time doing Skills Day.

“I think I did pretty good,” Waddington said.

Waddington competed in the shop skills category and received third place in the novice division. Specifically, her event was gas arc welding, where the competitors were given a piece of metal and tasked to weld it in a specific way.

“It was my favorite type of welding that we learned in class,” Waddington said.

According to Waddington, she may find herself at Skills Day once more.

“If I can I will come back again and I’d either do the same thing or try some other form of welding,” Waddington said.

Welding and the geography bee are not the only things Marshfield did well in. An abundance of the prizes won had also come from events like mathematics, and other means of manufacturing and welding. Even though Marshfield didn’t win in every event offered, the presence was strong.