Robotics Team Shows Significant Advancement

The students participated in five qualifying rounds which resulted in scores high enough to captain an alliance team in the playoffs. Victorious in the best-of-three semifinals, the Whoa!Bots won the first round in the finals but lost the second. Down to the wire, the score on the board when the buzzer rang at the end of the final round was 172 - 172. However, once the judges completed final calculations of their points, the determination was in favor of the home team with SA’s Whoa!Bots earning 173 points and the Red Tornados earning 191. Though it was a heartbreaking loss, the SA students were tremendously proud of their achievement, and coach Ben Spicer noted that it “was a worthwhile experience.”

According to Zan, after several disappointing years, the team chose to completely change their approach for 2022-23. “We worked on more reliable programming, more advanced software, and committed to a robot design early on and then have been working to improve upon it throughout the season.”

Last month, the Whoa!Bots competed at the FTC Southwestern PA Qualifier at North Catholic High School. Even with wire disconnection problems during the first three matches, they made it to the semi-finals.

“Every season brings interesting challenges that require teamwork and leadership to overcome,” said Mr. Spicer. “I’m always pleased to see the leaders step up and the students rely on each other when inevitable failures occur.” 

As the team leader, Derek, who has been a Whoa!Bots member for the past four years, was especially motivated to help his team be competitive this season. “I spent much of the off-season doing research on algorithms and other topics that I was able to bring to this year’s robot.” 

“This year was a turning point for us,” added Alex. “We lost a lot of seniors last year and so this year was a fresh start. We really focused on team development and after the first qualifier, we knew we were good enough this year to progress toward the state championship.”

“It’s exciting to see our team’s determination pay off with an overall successful outcome,” shared Cristy McCloskey, also a Whoa!Bots coach. “These young men are incredibly bright and work so well under pressure at the qualifiers. We’re very proud of what they’ve accomplished this season.”

Mr. Spicer added, “Now that our new robotics lab is up and running, I expect to see continued growth with next year's team leaders building on this year's success. I am looking forward to it."