Two of Aurora’s most recent alums, Sam Elge and Lucas Riley, reflected on their success at the national competition of SkillsUSA during their high school years.
The two competed in audio-radio production, almost completely self-taught. Elge and Riley were state champs all four years of high school and made it to the national competition for their sophomore through senior years.
Nationals are always held in Atlanta at the Georgia World Congress Center as it’s the only facility big enough to host the competition, Elge said.
Elge and Riley thought it only made sense to put their heads together for this competition.
“I mean, he (Elge) had the speech side of things and was kind of used to writing scripts and presenting his voice, and then I helped with STRIV and live streaming at the school. So that was kind of my technical background,” Riley said.
For the state competition, the audio-radio project is always the same.
“We had to find a Nebraska-based business and do a five-minute story on them and include two commercials -- a minute-long commercial and a 30-second commercial for that business,” Elge explained. “So the first year we did it on the Edgerton Center. The second year we did the Leadership Center and this year, Hamilton Telecommunications.”
To prepare, the duo had the help of a few advisors. First, Tate Erbst, who was then replaced by Keith Dubas for a short time until Erbst returned. They also had the help of AHS teachers Rod Havens and Tim Elge, not to mention the radio-famous Steve Stein.
Elge and Riley had no expectations of being successful when they first started.
“The way a lot of competitions work is you have to do everything on site at the state competition, but for us, it’s like get this all recorded and edited and then just go in with a flash drive to turn it in,” Riley said. “So we made our script, did our interview and made the whole story. We don’t have anything to compare it to and we were just going in blind.”
Elge added that they really had no idea what they were getting into at their first competition.
“We didn’t even know what we were doing. We had no idea what we did was even correct, or if we would get disqualified or something,” Elge added with a laugh. “But it ended up working out. The judges told us that it was actually pretty good. And then we thought, okay, let’s do this again our junior year, and we got better and our senior year. They (the judges) said that our project was as good as the people that they hire right out of college.”
At their final state competition, the two ended up completely scrapping their initial project. At the competition, they re-did everything.
“This last year, when we brought our final project to state, we kind of listened to it. And I was like, “Wow, this is trash,” Riley said.
“We thought it was the worst,” Elge added.
So the two explored their area at Fonner Park in Grand Island where state is held and found a quiet place to re-record. They upheld the tradition of working in a building they probably weren’t supposed to be in.
Tim Elge added that the duo’s success is especially remarkable because of their competition. The two went up against teams from technical high schools that were able to dedicate much more time to working in a studio and practicing the skills needed for audio-radio.
Their sophomore year, the duo finished 13th out of 27 teams. Their junior year, fifth out of 35 teams, and their senior year, they finished 10th out of 40 teams at nationals.
Elge and Riley ended with one of their favorite memories from their trips to Atlanta, more specifically, the World of Coca-Cola museum.
“At the end of the World of Coca Cola, there’s a room where you taste all the beverages from around the world, Elge said. “And one of them is a plum soda from China. It’s disgusting, it’s awful, worst drink I’ve ever tasted. It tastes like barbecue sauce, and when I tasted it, I had to make sure that my dad tried it too, so I texted him and I said, ‘The plum Fanta from China is the best drink. It’s my favorite. I wish we had this in America.”’
When Tim Elge made his way to the tasting room, he made sure to try the soda.
“So I get there and I’m by that machine and this guy was right next to me,” Tim Elge said. “We were just talking about a different flavor and then I said ‘Oh yeah, my son said this is the best one and that we’ve got to try this one,’ so we both tried and we both just spit it out,” he said.
Both Elge and Riley are headed to college in the fall. Riley will be studying business at UNO and Elge will be studying advertising and publications and broadcasting at UNL.
