Students compete at Lineman Rodeo at MGCCC

Today was an exciting day for students of MGCCC’s electric lineman course as they had the opportunity to show their skills in front of some major local power companies.

I’m sure we’ve all seen power workers suspended from 60-foot power lines and wondered how electric lineman train for such heights. Well look no further than MGCCC’s Lineman Rodeo. Mississippi Power Training Instructor Mike Barnes said, “We have the 2024 MGCCC Lineman Rodeo. It’s between two campuses we have our Harrison County campus here in Gulfport and also our George County campus that are competing. We have five events they’re doing today. Two of them are individual events and then we have three team events that they’re doing.”

While the events are scored for safety first, they also track the speed of the lineman because who doesn’t love a little competition.

Associate VP of Workforce Solutions at MGCCC Rachael Kunz said, “We just wanted to make it fun for the students and you know the Gulf Coast likes to be competitive. So, the idea to have our George County students come down and compete with our Harrison County students was just another way to add a little passion and fire to it”

The Harrison and George County teams are competing for more than just bragging rights as after the 5 events are scored the winning campus gets to take home the illustrious golden hard hat.

“Oh, a golden helmet I’ll keep my pink.” This is Emilee Rhodee one of the students visiting from George County but she’s also visiting the state as she came all the way from Wisconsin to be here.

“Well, my sister and brother-in-law are based at Keesler Air Force base so I googled some schools around here and it looks like I made the right choice.”

Emilee came a long way to pursue this profession and she faces the challenges head on. “Well, it’s obviously a male dominated field but I can put up with anything as long as they can put up with me and my bossiness. But here I am, I’m ready to get started and do some important work.”

Emilee definitely did her thing at the lineman rodeo as her George County campus got the win this year and gets to take home the golden hard hat.

Next year the rodeo will switch locations and George County will host the event.