Pandora teen revs it up in state competition

PANDORA - Dean Hovest has skills. He proved it in competition at the SkillsUSA Ohio State Championship April 25 and 26 at the Ohio Expo Center in Columbus.

Hovest, a senior at Pandora-Gilboa High School, was one member of a three-man team from Millstream Career Center to compete at SkillsUSA in automotive mechanics.

"It was our first time going down there, and there were over 50,000 students there," he said, "but I wasn't nervous. I'm never nervous."

Hovest's team placed second in the automotive category, working with the electronic fuel-injection and ignition systems of a 1993 Ford Escort.

"We got the car, drove right in, took it all apart and put the wires on a 4-by-4 plywood board, and there was over four and a half miles of wiring we had to go through with diagnostic tools," he said.

Hovest has been studying automotive mechanics at Millstream the past two years. Next year, he said he plans on attending the University of Northwestern Ohio in Lima to study automotive, diesel and high-performance mechanics, as well as alternative fuels and agriculture.

"I've grown up on a farm. I feed the animals and do typical farm work," he said, "but I found out I like tearing stuff apart and putting it back together - tractors, combines, whatever I can get my hands on."

Hovest said he first started getting into the mechanics of machinery at age 5. "I'd work on stuff with my uncles," he said.

Now Hovest is rebuilding a 350 Rocket engine out of a 1972 Oldsmobile. "It's my dad's engine," he said. "It came out of his old ‘72 hardtop."

Hovest said doing mechanical work comes easily for him. "It's just the cost that gets me," he said. For income, he makes money farming and works part time at McDonald's in Ottawa.

At Pandora-Gilboa, Hovest played varsity soccer four years. He started playing when he was 4 years old. "My knees are shot. The doctor said I have the knees of a 50 year old, but I'm still going to play. I'll play until my knees fall off," he said.

At home, Hovest helps farm tomatoes, soybean and wheat and raises hogs and sheep. "I love farming, any work with my hands," he said. "As soon as I was 10, I was up at 4 o'clock every day to help work. You just get set into the motion of things."

In his spare time, Hovest said he enjoys fishing and growing vegetables. His family has a garden he tends.

Hovest also is a member of SS. Peter and Paul Catholic Church in Ottawa and volunteers at its fall festival each year.