BUTLER TWP — After seeing countless athletes have their team jerseys retired to honor great careers, Eric Collins decided it was time for individuals with exceptional trade skills to share the honor.

A heating, ventilation and air conditioning instructor at the Butler County Vocational-Technical School for 14 years, Collins said he was always intrigued by great athletes, but he takes great pride in being a tradesman.

“I began to realize that sports are great, but it’s entertainment,” he said.

“Athletes would struggle without tradesmen to provide what they need. This is my way of honoring them, the same way an athlete would be honored.”

The tradition started in Collins’ second year at the vo-tech.

“My very first year, I had a student go on to the national competition and place third, and I wanted to find a way to honor him,” Collins said.

The next year, he came up with the idea of retiring that student’s work shirt and hanging it at the school.

“It has motivated students even more because they want to see their shirt hanging there. They become immortal here,” Collins said.

Since the first time Collins raised a work shirt to the rafters in the schools HVAC laboratory, 13 others have followed it.

Collins said he only retires the work shirts of students who medal in state or national competitions. So far, 15 students have brought home medals from state and national competitions.

Only one student declined to have his shirt retired, stating that he had earned it and wanted to keep it, Collins said.

Collins picks one student per year to represent the school at the regional competition, where a gold medal earns entry to the state competition. Students must win gold at the state level for entry into the national competition.

Only two people have medaled at the national level, “a very elite club,” according to Collins. One of them had his work shirt retired on Dec. 22.

Darrin Smith was awarded a silver medal in an HVAC contest at the national SkillsUSA Championships in Kansas City, Mo., in July, which pitted 30 of the nation’s best students in the trade against one another.

“Being a third-year student here at the vo-tech, I was here in the shop every day and saw the shirts hanging up there,” Smith said after the ceremony.

“I told Mr. Collins, ‘My shirt will be up there some day.’”

He said the decision to donate his shirt to the classroom came easily.

“I think it’s pretty cool having it up there,” Smith said.

The shirt hangs with the others, bearing Smith’s regional, state and national medals around the collar.

The dedication required to earn such a tribute is something Smith took seriously.

“I spent every Wednesday and Thursday night here, until 9 or 9:30 p.m. It was a lot of hours worth of reading, hands-on work and practice,” he said.

“More than 50 percent of that time was spent reading.”

His work has paid off, though.

With his win at state competition, Smith received a scholarship to Pennsylvania College of Technology, where he recently finished his first semester of HVAC classes.

Some students there, not having taken trade skills classes in high school, look to him for guidance, he said.

Furthermore, Smith will represent the Pennsylvania College of Technology, a Penn State affiliate, at SkillsUSA’s collegiate-level regional competition in the spring.