Preparing students for the trade school Olympics

By Emma Peterson.

Red Dog’s Roofing is preparing students to represent Massachusetts on the national SkillsUSA stage.

In a recent episode of Roofing Road Trips®, Megan Ellsworth got the chance to chat with Patrick Cochran of Red Dog’s Roofing out of Fitchburg, Massachusetts. This year, one of Red Dog’s big initiatives has been advocating for the creation of and then training students teams to compete in commercial roofing at the Massachusetts SkillsUSA competition. Patrick shared a bit about this competition, saying, “SkillsUSA is a national organization that really empowers students, gives them the tools that they need to be professional within their trade. For lack of a better way to put it, I tell people it’s like the trade school Olympics. And these kids get set up very well not only for their trade but also with life skills.”

Red Dog’s Roofing has been involved with SkillsUSA for over three years now. It all started with Patrick, who is the owner of Red Dog’s Roofing, volunteering for the NRCA at a SkillsUSA event. This year, he took it to the next level and reached out to Karen Ward, the executive director of SkillsUSA Massachusetts. Patrick shared what happened next, saying, “Karen War invited us out to their meeting where we did a quick presentation about roofing and really showcase roofing as the next competition in SkillsUSA to the administrators for the different trade schools that are involved in Massachusetts.”  

After the presentation, they held another event where Red Dog’s team introduced trade school educators and representatives to a hands-on challenge related to commercial roofing. Patrick explained, “We created a little PVC mockup. They didn't do any hand welding but we tried to make it really fun for them and they got hands-on experience of what a student would get in the field, minus the hand welding. It was such a great event and we had so much interest we actually had to cap it off at eight schools.” Those eight schools will be taking the stage in the Massachusetts SkillsUSA competition this spring, so make sure to keep an eye out to see who is going to nationals!

Read the transcript or Listen to the episode for more about Red Dog’s Roofing and the 2025 SkillsUSA competition.