It’s just under three days until the build season kickoff, and we have been busy! So much has gone in to making this possible for our team.
Our season began with informational sessions to recruit team members. After it was all said and done, we ended up with 14 highly motivated and dedicated team members and five adult mentors. With a wide variety of skills and talents, our team is very well rounded and ready for our rookie year.
As we eagerly awaited the official kickoff of the season, we spent many hours reaching out to friends, family, and community members to try and secure sponsors to help offset the hefty price tag that comes with FRC. Although we are not quite there yet, we have come a long way and consider our fundraising efforts to be very successful.
Without a robot to get us started, it was difficult for our team to envision the challenges that lay ahead for us. Thankfully, Westlake High School was kind enough to let us borrow one of their robots and participate in a mid-season competition they hosted, called Bat Bots. This let us familiarize ourselves with the robot and how it works. We modified the robot to be able to participate in this event, and we ended up scoring second place out of five teams!
After Bat Bots, we extended an invitation to the home-school community to showcase our team and robot. Several co-ops, science teams, and other home-school groups took us up on our offer, and we drove our robot all over town for various demonstrations. There was lots of interest in our group and the robot, and some people even asked how they could get involved in FRC.
As the countdown to the kickoff came to a close, our team began to strategize and plan for the six-week build season. Kickoff is this Saturday. Along with 4,000 other FRC teams, we will learn the rules of the game and begin our exciting journey.
Keep up with our progress by reading our blog posts, and follow us on social media for more!
Dianne Schlanger