York linemen compete in rodeo

The Fourth Annu­al South Car­oli­na Lineman’s Rodeo, held March 15–16 at Berke­ley Elec­tric Coop­er­a­tive in Monck’s Cor­ner, brought togeth­er linework­ers across the state to show­case their skills and exper­tise.

Each year, this pub­lic event seeks to cul­ti­vate a sense of com­mu­ni­ty and cul­ture of safe­ty among South Carolina’s elec­tric coop­er­a­tive linework­ers. It high­lights the lev­el of exper­tise, expe­ri­ence and skill every linework­er acquires in their pro­fes­sion, and it pro­vides the pub­lic an oppor­tu­ni­ty to appre­ci­ate the peo­ple that con­tin­ue to deliv­er reli­able elec­tric­i­ty across the state.

All line­men from the 18 mem­ber coop­er­a­tives with The Elec­tric Coop­er­a­tives of South Car­oli­na (ECSC) are eli­gi­ble to par­tic­i­pate in the com­pe­ti­tion. Con­tes­tants can com­pete in one of two cat­e­gories: the appren­tice divi­sion or the jour­ney­man divi­sion. Peo­ple with less than five years of over­all line work expe­ri­ence are con­sid­ered an appren­tice line work­er. Addi­tion­al­ly, three to four line­men can work togeth­er on a jour­ney­man team.

Each divi­sion fea­tured four events, with one mys­tery event in each divi­sion. Appren­tices com­pet­ed in the fol­low­ing events: equipo­ten­tial zone ground­ing, street­light replace­ment and a sur­prise knot-tying event. Jour­ney­man teams show­cased their skills in OH trans­former change­outs, pad-mount trans­former change­outs and a sur­prise hurt-man res­cue event. All con­tes­tants com­plet­ed a 25-ques­tion exam that test­ed their knowl­edge of line work and safe­ty stan­dards.

For the 4th con­sec­u­tive year, employ­ees from York Elec­tric Coop­er­a­tive par­tic­i­pat­ed in the statewide event and made a strong show­ing at the com­pe­ti­tion, with 10 appren­tices and a four-per­son jour­ney­man team. To par­tic­i­pate in each divi­sion, line­men trained for weeks in advance, using event details and spec­i­fi­ca­tion pro­vid­ed by Berke­ly Elec­tric Coop­er­a­tive.

In the appren­tice divi­sion, Jack­son Good secured 3rd place in the street­light replace­ment event, while Cameron Jack­son and James Gra­biec claimed 4th place in the equipo­ten­tial zone ground­ing and over­all divi­sion, respec­tive­ly. In the jour­ney­man cat­e­go­ry, York Electric’s debut team, Luke Lucas, Ethan Mitchell, Joey Win­ters and Jake Propst, fin­ished 5th over­all out of 14 teams, an impres­sive accom­plish­ment. Oth­er line­men in atten­dance includ­ed Chase Eding­ton, Gar­rett Gilbert, Will Gri­er, Isaac West­more­land, Tyler Lark, Evan Upchurch and Mar­cos Ros­ales.

How­ev­er, York Electric’s role extend­ed beyond event con­tes­tants. Four linemen—Shannon Lit­tle­ton, Dustin Vic­tor, Stephen Clin­ton and Jonathan Doster—served as vol­un­teer judges. Three mem­ber ser­vice rep­re­sen­ta­tives— Hope Boyters, Kim Black and Amy Crocker—served as event vol­un­teers.

York Electric’s par­tic­i­pa­tion in the South Car­oli­na Lineman’s Rodeo exem­pli­fies the co-op’s com­mit­ment to excel­lence, safe­ty and col­lab­o­ra­tion. The annu­al event is not just an oppor­tu­ni­ty to win brag­ging rights, but a chance to strength­en the bonds among our state’s linework­ers.

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