This past week, Robotics Teams from across Okaloosa County traveled to Tallahassee to compete in the FIRST (For Inspiration & Recognition of Science & Technology) Robotics Tallahassee Regional Competition.
- For Okaloosa County, this was a competition that included many “firsts.”
As part of the competition, participants were given a challenge at the beginning of the robotics season to build a robot from scratch to complete the challenge. The were given no instructions.
For the first time, every major Okaloosa County high school was represented at the competition. Niceville High School had The RadioActive Roaches team and the HSU Educational Foundation sent two teams:
- Special Forces BalistaBots – Crestview High School, coached by their engineering & robotics teacher Tim Sexton.
- HSUwerx includes students from Fort Walton Beach High School, Choctawhatchee High School, Destin High School and the Collegiate High School. Coached by Aaron Johnson, 1SOW Mentor.
“All 3 teams shared a charter bus to Tallahassee together which gave Coach Ben Shuman and I opportunities to share information and insights with these two rookie teams,” said Coach Al LaRoe, NHS Robotics Team #2556 The RadioActive Roaches. “All 3 teams competed with 33 other teams from around Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, Tennessee, Illinois, and even Hawaii.”
Another first for the county is that Crestview High School was selected as the “Rookie All Star Team” for this regional competition. According to LaRoe, this is an honor given to the rookie team that best reflects the mission and ethos of FIRST – fierce competition linked with dedicated collaboration with all other teams.
- Niceville’s RadioActive Roaches won this same award during their 1st competition years ago.
According to LaRoe, after a day of practice, followed by a day-and-a-half of challenging qualifying matches, 8 alliances were formed for the Championship. HSUwerx was selected by the #1 Alliance and made it through the quarter and semifinals undefeated.
- The NHS RadioActive Roaches were selected by the #2 Alliance and also made it through the quarter and semifinals undefeated.
“Our alliance then met the #1 alliance (which included the HSUwerx) and defeated them in 2 straight (but very close) matches, winning the Inaugural Tallahassee Regional,” said LaRoe.
There are only two trophies awarded:
- 1st place: The RadioActive Roaches
- 2nd place: HSUwerx
Because of this win, Niceville has earned an invite to the World Championship in Houston in late April where they will compete with teams from all around the globe.
The final match of the tournament
The purple & yellow robot with 2556 on blue bumpers is Niceville High’s robot.
“It requires team work, problem solving, using STEM knowledge, patience, and a lot of time dedicated to the end goal,” said Okaloosa Superintendent Marcus Chambers. “All three of these teams have represented our district well!”
Congrats to all three teams for representing Okaloosa so well!
