West Valley: After the nerves faded, senior found his forte

Tom Mott was nervous about transferring into a larger school for his senior year.

“I transferred from Selkirk, which is pretty small,” Mott said. “West Valley is so much bigger. It was kind of scary coming here. I had no idea what to expect.”

At Selkirk, Mott would have been one of fewer than four dozen graduating seniors. At West Valley, where he graduates in the top 10 percent of his class, he’s one of about 155.

“Selkirk is one of those high schools where you know everybody and you pretty much hang out with everybody,” he said. “When you come from something that small, a big school like West Valley can be intimidating. I pretty much went to school the first couple of days kicking and screaming.”

Once the kicking and screaming died down, Mott found a future he never thought possible.

“He walked into my room with a red spiked Mohawk haircut about six inches high to join my mentor class,” West Valley teacher Brad Liberg said.

Retired from the military, Liberg readily admits his first reaction to his student’s appearance was dead wrong.

“Tom was in my Computer Aided Design class,” Liberg said. “He really caught on fast in that class. In no time at all he was tackling very challenging projects.”

“This was something I had no idea existed before I came here,” Mott said. “I talked to the counselor when I first got to West Valley about taking some automotive classes, and he told me about the CAD class and about how it might help me learn to design cars.

“I took to it pretty easily – it’s kind of a math-based program and I was always pretty good at math. I was surprised at how easily it came to me. Before long I was showing the teacher how to do stuff. You realize that, maybe this is what I should be doing the rest of my life.”

When Mott left Selkirk, his career goal revolved around something he enjoyed: working on big engines.

“I wanted to be a diesel mechanic,” he said. “It’s something I really enjoy doing and I thought it would be a good career choice. I love messing around with cars.”

The counseling staff urged Liberg to talk with Mott about continuing his education

“At first, I talked to him about studying more about diesel mechanics at a trade school because he really does have well-developed mechanical abilities.”

Liberg put those abilities to use on the school’s first-ever U.S. F.I.R.S.T. (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics team.

“We were a rookie team this year and needed strong senior student leadership,” he said “It seems a little odd to turn to a new guy in school to be that leader, but Tom proved to be an ideal captain. He was the driving force behind the design and manufacture of our robot.”

Mott loved the project and was able to draw heavily on his experiences with engines and hydraulic systems in building a robot in just six weeks.

“We ended up with a drive system that was pretty cutting edge,” he said. “There were teams there that had been trying to develop something like it for years and hadn’t managed to accomplish what we did.”

More importantly for Mott, the experience put him in touch with Lee Norman, owner of U.S. Motion, a design firm in Liberty Lake.

“Lee was our outside engineering adviser on the project,” Liberg said. “He was really impressed, not only with Tom’s abilities and aptitude at engineering, but with his abilities as a leader as well.”

One thing led to another and Norman offered Mott a part-time job.

“I’m excited about going on now and studying engineering and doing this kind of stuff for the rest of my life,” Mott said. “This is something that I would never have even known about if I hadn’t come here. I’m glad I did.”

Liberg, too, is pleased to see his student recognize his own potential and meet a bright future.

“Every once in a while, you really see where you make a difference,” he said. “It’s why you go into teaching – moments like this.”