CORPUS CHRISTI, TEXAS—This past weekend, the Robotics team won the most recent round of FIRST Robotics Competition, titled FiT-Central Gulf Coast Tournament, and successfully advanced to the area level of competition.
The team consists of sophomore and team captain Dalena Dunn, senior and social media manager Alysse Zertuche, senior and main programmer Tyler Ferris, senior and main driver Cooper Floyd, freshman and business manager Leann Leos-Gonzalez, freshman and frame designer Gage Widas, and freshman and drone launcher builder Matthew Burinda.
“I was honestly so shocked when we actually advanced. We are a rookie team and new to FIRST, so to see that we advanced and going to Area is honestly so exciting,” exclaimed Zertuche.
This was a common sentiment shared among the team, as they had never advanced before.
“It was amazing to see what a rookie team could do when everyone knows their part,” said Ferris.
The competition schedule allows for prep time before their first match and then after that, they have non-stop matches until they lose.
“The average layout is a week of preparing and fine-tuning, and the competition itself is just us having fun and doing what we’ve practiced,” said Widas.
The team put a lot of practice in ahead of time and made sure to perfect their robot before heading to Districts.
“The schedule for robotics varies on the week, but before the competition, we try to meet as much as possible for at least 2 hours,” said Dunn, while Zertuche mentioned that “since we are going to area, we will most definitely be trying to meet after-school every day.”
The team enjoys learning new things and they see robotics as just another way to do that.
“My favorite part of robotics is getting to experiment and work not only with the mechanics of the robot, but the programs which make it run,” said Floyd.
While the team had fun meeting each other, for Leos-Gonzales, that was only part of the fun.
“Being on the team is really fun and you get to meet people from different schools that you never thought you would meet. The competitions last about all day and it’s really fun because you talk to new people, hang out with your friends and get to see a new school.”
Dunn, the team captain, sums up her experiences by saying, “My favorite part about being in robotics is the competitions and the excitement that comes along with watching the matches. My favorite part about being on the team is the new friends that I have made.”
