Last lap for a Hader-led team

The Grafton High School Auto Hawks last week once again qualified for a national competition in New York City in April.

But this will be the 19th and final time a GHS team is coached by Carl Hader, who recently announced his retirement after 41 years of teaching at the school.

On Friday, Feb. 28, seniors Jake Garza and Jacob Guerra won the 27th annual Automobile Dealers Association of Mega Milwaukee Technicians of Tomorrow Competition held at the Greater Milwaukee International Auto Show in the Wisconsin Center. The duo bested five other teams from Muskego, Oak Creek, Waukesha, West Allis and West Bend in the technology-based contest.

The team had one hour to repair a 2020 Toyota Corolla and wisely split their time to independently achieve two hours of work.

“Both guys took their own direction on the car and respected each other’s tech skills,” Hader said.

In addition to the car repair, Garza and Guerra began the day with an intense written exam and were later challenged at six work stations that involved electronic diagnostics, air conditioning, tire and wheel service, under-car inspections, wiring and repair, and an individual job interview with local dealerships.

At the end of the day, the students walked away with scholarships from Wisconsin Automobile and Truck Dealers Association and Snap-on tool packages each valued at more than $7,000.

“Not bad for a day of work,” Hader said, noting the biggest takeaway is an all-expense-paid trip to New York City for the National Auto Tech Competition that will take place April 13 to 15.

Garza and Guerra are students in Hader’s two-hour advanced auto tech class. Garza works as an apprentice automotive technician at Schmit Bros. auto dealership in Saukville. Guerra is a manufacturing youth apprentice at Kapco Metal Stamping in Grafton. 

Hader said his team prepared for the competition by practicing every weekend at Andrew Toyota in Glendale. The team will be pairing with Umanksy Motor Cars in Glendale to learn the 2020 BMW vehicle systems for the national competition.   

Under Hader’s leadership, the Grafton teams have earned top-10 finishes 12 times at New York competition, three of which were first-place performances. Hader is the only educator outside of New York to have a team win the competition three times. 

Hader said he wants to end his career with a win, but noted it will be a challenging task because the national competition involves 10 work stations ranging from engine repair and testing, brake and wheel alignment and controller area network diagnostics.

“We will have to log some heavy-duty practice in the weeks leading up to NYC to even have a chance at a top-20 finish,” Hader said.

He said he decided to retire after 41 years at Grafton High School because his wife Sally recently retired as a travel agent.

“We decided to idle our lives down a bit,” he said.

Hader is a certified mechanic but decided to pursue a career in education because of his former automotive teacher John Gawlik at West Bend High School.

“He sat me down and suggested I become a teacher versus a mechanic. He was right, teaching automotive was a great career path for me,” Hader said.

“There is a mixture of all the other subjects that go into an auto-tech curriculum, including math, science and communication skills, which makes it very interesting for students to learn and for people like me to teach.”

In addition to teaching, Hader has edited automotive textbooks, provides curriculum updates for the Wisconsin Automobile and Truck Dealers Association and works for the National Institute for Automotive Service Excellence as an evaluation team leader for high school and technical college programs, which he plans to continue doing in retirement. 

Through the years, a number of Hader’s former students have pursued careers in the auto industry as technicians, engineers and designers. 

Hader said the future of Grafton High School’s auto program is looking bright after he leaves because he is currently training a student teacher.

In retirement, Hader said he plans on traveling with his wife and spending more time with his grandchildren.