The Mount Vernon Robotics Club is seeing success across the board this season, regardless of age or experience level.
Using the VEX robotics program, the club builds robots each year out of real aluminum and steel, complex batteries and “brains,” ultimately creating a thousand-dollar robot measuring 18x18x18. This year, Mount Vernon’s teams, Team 85A, Team 85B, Team 85C, and the fifth-grade team, have had some troubles and triumphs, but have pulled through and remain optimistic about the rest of the season.
The robotics program, unlike many other extracurricular activities, has a season that spans the entire year. The Mount Vernon Robotics Club accepts anyone into the club, regardless of how often they can make it to practice, or what other activities they have that may conflict. As a result, some practices might have only one or two members per team in attendance, which can stall progress.
With conflicting schedules and minimal practice time, it is difficult not to face setbacks. Oftentimes, the teams will have to do a “complete rebuild,” according to freshman Theo Bradbury of Team 85C. For Theo’s team, various setbacks have occurred while at tournaments. For example, the team had to “reset the whole code during a tournament. The first design couldn’t move, and the second design couldn’t get the height it needed.”
Out of hardship comes success, however. After resetting their code and doing a complete rebuild at a tournament, Team 85C later went on to place in the top ten. According to Theo, the season “was challenging in the beginning, but [they’re] adapting well and are hopeful for how things continue going.”
Adaptability is key, and each team has proven that. For Theo’s brother, Matthew Bradbury, a junior on Team 85B, one of the hardest things is that “it doesn’t always go as planned.” Matthew’s teammate Nate Poduska shared the same view, stating that “adapting to issues and challenges at tournaments” is never easy.
However, just like Team 85C, they were able to push past setbacks and accomplish big things. Team 85B went on to win the Excellence Award, which earned them an invite to the U.S. Open tournament in March. The Excellence Award is a high honor, as it means that not only did the team perform well, but “because everything you did was perfect,” according to head coach Tiffany Chatman.
Winning the Excellence Award took them to the next step, giving them the confidence to push for even bigger goals. At this point, the goal of Team 85B is to get invited to the World Championship held in St. Louis in April. To do so, they must win qualifying awards, like the Excellence Award, at a qualifying event, like the state championship in February.
Team 85A has seen success this season as well. Although they have faced less challenges this season, Team 85A has also struggled with time constraints and limited practice time. Despite, they have pushed through and were able to place second in their home tournament, their highest placement of the year.
As the oldest and most experienced member on Team 85A, junior Porter Chatman has seen the hard work of younger and newer members and recognized it. Porter has enjoyed “teaching others” and seeing them “adapt quickly.” With his team, Porter hopes to win high school state, surpassing his win at the middle school state tournament a few years back, and remains optimistic that it is a possibility for him and the rest of Team 85A.
The high school teams are not the only teams that have seen success this year. Mount Vernon’s fifth grade robotics team has seen major success, as this is the first year they have been old enough to participate. However, according to Tiffany, “you wouldn’t know it by their robot,” as their work has been truly notable this season.
Members of the fifth-grade team include Korbin Vavricek, Matthew Climek, Bowen Bass, and Tori Lamb. As a team, they have faced challenges that they had never seen before entering the robotics world, but have worked together to solve problems. The biggest challenges for the team have been coding, taking the robot apart, and rebuilding it to make sure that each side was equal.
Each member has had things that they have enjoyed as first-time robotics members. For Vavricek, Climek, and Bass, going to a tournament for the first time and winning their first match was nothing short of exhilarating. For Lamb, the best part was building the robot, specifically the intake, which was her job specifically.
As the season goes on, the team hopes to score more points and win more matches. Vavricek has goals to win state, while Climek has the same goal, stating that he wants to “not finish last at state.” For Bass, the goal is to “score more goals and feel more comfortable about driving.” Lamb’s goals are more about learning from past experiences and adapting, however, as her goals are to not “knock the other robots over and learn better driving skills.”
Tiffany and her assistant coach, Troy Ogden, are incredibly proud of the Mount Vernon Robotics Club members. Tiffany has 11 years of coaching robotics under her belt, with this year being her fourth in Mount Vernon. Every year that she has been in Mount Vernon, she has felt that she has “the best kids in Mount Vernon. They are all good students and great people who impress [her] every single day.”