We had an amazing season. We began with a young, inexperienced team. But everyone was patient (for the most part (: ) and displayed an exceptional willingness to learn. Together, we built a robot, learned a lot, and had fun.
We named this season’s robot “Bobarazzi,” after our mentor Robert Weekley, who takes all of our photos. Most importantly, he is a valuable mentor in other ways — always willing to patiently teach a student a new tool or skill.
Additionally, we saw a level of student participation and interest in CAD that we have not seen for years. And we used our new Formlabs Fuse 1 for the first time. We were able to create parts that could previously only exist as CAD designs; we printed an adjustable shooter hood, ball mounts for pneumatics cylinders, our own vectored intake wheels, and much more.
At Buckeye, we had a number of issues with the robot. Yet we were resilient, always keeping up our team spirit and steadily improving through the event. We went home with a list of things to fix, modify, and test before Rocket City.
We went to Rocket City a week later with a completely redesigned acquisition system. After initially struggling on Friday, we ended up on an alliance with teams 6823 and 144. We lost in the quarterfinals in two close matches.
Of course, aesthetics is #1. (: We won the Imagery Award at Buckeye for our signature purple-and-blue tie-dye, hydrodipping, and LEDs. If nothing else, the robot was pretty.
Also, thank you to the seniors on our team. They have been great friends and leaders, and I know they will all go on to do amazing things after they graduate.
And congratulations to our two individual award winners! Anthony Ogg (or “Princess” to many of us) won the Woodie Flowers Finalist Award at Rocket City. He has been a valuable part of the team for fifteen years, first as a student and now as a mentor. He is always patient with us students and works to make FRC both valuable and fun. Our team would not be the same without our princess. This award is well-deserved.
And Nithya Kothnur, a junior on our team, was one of the two Dean’s List Finalists at Rocket City. Nithya joined our team this season with FLL and FTC experience under her belt and has quickly become an insightful, valuable team member, an outspoken leader, and a wonderful friend.
Good luck to both of them at Championships! This season has shown me what the amazing kids on our team are capable of, and I can’t wait for next year.