NIC student wins bronze in national SkillsUSA auto competition

Hunter Hunt came home from Atlanta with more than a medal. The Sandpoint student earned bronze in automotive refinishing at the SkillsUSA national conference, putting North Idaho College on a stage crowded with the country’s best young trades competitors and giving local auto employers another reason to watch NIC closely.

Hunt competed against 26 of the nation’s top collegiate automotive refinishing students during the June 1-5 SkillsUSA National Leadership and Skills Conference at the Georgia World Congress Center. Along with the bronze-medal recognition, he received autobody tools, supplies and training opportunities, a prize package that points directly toward the next step: a job in a field that depends on trained hands and sharp technical judgment.

For Hunt, the competition was as intense as it was useful. The national event brought together more than 6,800 state champions across 115 skilled and leadership contests, so a bronze finish placed him in a field already narrowed to elite competitors from around the country. That matters in North Idaho, where collision shops and paint booths need workers who can step in with real skills, not just classroom familiarity.

Andy Rogge, an assistant professor of autobody at NIC, said the trip to nationals gives students a chance to measure themselves against first-place state finishers from across the country. Rogge teaches at the Parker Technical Education Center in Rathdrum, about 12 miles from Coeur d’Alene, where NIC’s Autobody and Paint Technology program runs as a nine-month career-and-technical track aimed at entry-level collision repair technicians and painters. The program covers all phases of refinishing, including basecoat and clear coat applications, giving students the kind of hands-on practice employers say they need.

Hunt was not NIC’s only finalist to make a mark. Chris Brandt of Coeur d’Alene placed 10th in Collision Damage Appraisal, and Callitia McClintock of Post Falls placed 13th in Prepared Speech. Taken together, those results turned the trip into a strong showing for the college rather than a one-person headline, and they reinforced the pipeline NIC has been building from local classrooms to national competition.

That pipeline has been visible before. NIC student Jon Brunko won national gold in Collision Repair in 2024, and in March six NIC students medaled at the Idaho SkillsUSA State Leadership and Skills Conference, including three golds, two silvers and one bronze. NIC has also used its annual Rathdrum Rumble car show to help fund travel to regional and national SkillsUSA events, a practical boost that helps carry students from Rathdrum to the national stage and into the local workforce North Idaho shops are trying to keep staffed.