Young Texas Collision Repairers Take Home Gold, Head to SkillsUSA Nationals

by Alana Quartuccio

The future is bright for five young collision and automotive repair professionals who are on their way from the Lone Star State to Atlanta, GA this month to compete in the SkillsUSA Nationals competition!

Congratulations to the following students who took home the gold in the state SkillsUSA competition in Corpus Christ this past April:

Isaac Leo Perez (Ratteree Career Development Center; Irving) – Collision Repair Technology

Vu Mai (Collin College; McKinney) – Collision Damage Appraisal

Joshua Meza (Collin College; McKinney) – Automotive Refinishing

Peter Summers (Collin College; McKinney) – Collision Repair Technology

Grady Best (Technology, Exploration and Career Center West; Lewisville) – Automotive Refinishing

Felix Cano, Jr., collision repair instructor at Ratteree Career Development Center, is so proud of how far his student has come. His second year with Perez, he is proud to see him excel at SkillsUSA for a second year in a row – last year, Perez won silver in Waco, and this year, he went all the way to gold! 

“He’s one of those kids who really takes to collision repair,” Cano relays. Early on, he observed how easily Perez took to welding and body work. The young student expressed his interest in working on lowrider bikes, which Cano says is a good learning experience because it gets into some of the really tedious stuff which is what collision repair involves. 

Perez has been interested in cars from an early age. “My family grew up in California around lowriders and the whole car scene. I just found it interesting and fell in love with it to a point where I’m basically obsessed. When I was 12 or 13, I started building bikes for people.” After graduation, he plans to continue studying collision and hopes to eventually open his own shop “to build lowriders and custom trucks. I want to pass down the same obsession that I have and help others make their dreams a reality.” 

Collin College is proud to have three students advance in all three areas of the competition. All three prepped hard for the competition, spending four to six hours a day outside of school working on their skills, says Raven Luna, instructor and advisor for the collision technology program. 

“It really shows a lot of dedication. They also had to take a written test, and that can be really difficult, so it’s not just a hands-on competition,” she relayed.

Luna says her students take advantage of opportunities outside the classroom to grow: Mai is shadowing at Park Place BodyWerks (Dallas/Fort Worth), while Meza and Summers are training at Sherwin-Williams. Going to nationals provides a “a lot of networking opportunities and chances to win tools and training.” The competition also helps usher them in the door to a promising career. “I’ve taken students to nationals a few years back, and someone there was ready to hire my student. They know the students who compete take it seriously and can apply themselves well.” 

Best of Technology, Exploration and Career Center West is also heading to Atlanta this June. Best received gold in the automotive refinishing category. 

According to his instructor Jonathan Hegarty, Best is a graduating senior from Marcus High School. “Grady has been in my class for two years,” reports Hegarty. “During his first year, he competed in SkillsUSA for collision repair. He received silver at district with a marginal points gap to first. He lost to one of my other students who ended up winning at state and going to nationals. Last year was the first year our campus made it to nationals. So, this will be two years in a row we’ve advanced to nationals: last year for collision repair and this year for refinishing.”

Best plans to attend Collin College for his associate’s degree in applied science for auto collision, Hegarty reports. He was proud to have three students on the podium at Corpus Christi as Carson Petersen earned silver in collision repair and Hector Nevarez received bronze in automotive damage appraisal. 

“This year is the first year we have competed in Refinishing and Damage Appraisal. I am very proud of Hector Nevarez for trying something new and earning bronze at State for damage appraisal,” he says, adding, Petersen “did great to receive silver for collision repair.”

Want more? Check out the June 2025 issue of Texas Automotive!

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