Sometimes Mama knows best.
That was certainly the case for Wade O’Briant when his mother Donna urged him to consider a different career path.
After graduating from Winona Christian School in 2009, O’Briant planned to go to work in the oil field. His older brother Zac was already working in the oil industry and had a job lined up for Wade.
“My mama begged me to go take my ACT just to see how I would do,” he said. “She wanted me to try lineman school. I didn’t want to do it. I didn’t really know anything about being a lineman. I had no idea.”
Things changed quickly when O’Briant arrived at lineman school at Holmes Community College.
“I ended up going to lineman school to make her happy, but the first time I climbed a pole I fell in love with it,” he said.
O’Briant was hired by Yazoo Valley Electric immediately after completing lineman school. Thirteen years later he continues to find lineman work rewarding.
“I love being outside, and I love helping people,” he said. “It feels like you’re doing something worthwhile when you’re out there getting people’s power back on. Of course, it gets aggravating at times, but I wouldn’t change anything. I may complain sometimes, but there’s really nothing in the world I’d rather be doing.”
O’Briant enjoys the variety of situations he finds himself in doing linework.
Wade O'Briant of Durant has enjoyed a successful career as a lineman. He was recently named Yazoo Valley Electric Power Association's Lineman of the Year. O'Briant and his family recently built a home on family land between Durant and West.
Jason Patterson / Yazoo Valley Electric Power Association
“It stays interesting because you’re doing something different every day,” he said. “There is something different about every job.”
O’Briant has been successful as a lineman. He was recently selected by his peers as Yazoo Valley Electric’s 2022 Lineman of the Year.
When he’s not working, O’Briant and his wife Ashley spend much of their free time helping their three sons, Braxton, 8, and twins Spencer and Stokes, 5, pursue their hobby of racing dirt bikes.
“Every weekend we’re racing dirt bikes somewhere,” he said.
Dirt bike racing is a family tradition. O’Briant and his brother also raced in their younger days.
“We traveled all over racing,” he said. “I raced my whole life, until I turned 18 and had to go to work.”
The O’Briant family recently built a home on their family land between Durant and West. That came with the added benefit of getting him closer to were he does the majority of his work in Yazoo Valley’s northern territory.
“That’s home to me,” he said. “I consider all of that home.”
And many members of Yazoo Valley Electric Power Association who know they can depend on O’Briant to answer the call at any time when the lights go out are grateful for that.
