Monday, March 2, 2015

No Spring Break Camp

Every year for the past 3 years, we've run a Spring Break camp. However, this year we thought we might not be able to. It was a gamble, but it was the best decision. The reason was because Jordan's robotics team was so strong this year, we thought they might get a chance to attend the FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) Super Regional tournamet held in Oakland, CA which happens right in the middle of Spring Break.

Synergists prepare to compete at CO State Championships.

This past Saturday (Feb 28), the team did exceptionally well and are going onto California! Since I'm a leader for this team, I'll take the trip with them. So we have less than a month to figure out logistics like travel, housing and food.

There's always lessons to be learned whenever you get a chance to compete in any sport. This day was a lesson in perseverance. At one point in the day, the team ranked as low as 12 out of 26 teams. The team members stayed calm and adjusted their strategy. Nobody got mad. Everyone pulled together and supported one another while creating such a positive atmosphere. Towards the end of the day, they pulled the highest scoring game in Colorado with a score of 418! That along with being chosen by another team to be their alliance partner gave our team a fighting chance. In the end, they helped the other team win the championship round. That got our team a ticket to Super Regionals! You can see the final rankings here.

Robot just finished dumping balls into the high goal.
We also found out later that we won 2nd Place Inspire Award. This was another avenue to the CA competition. We had it covered anyways, but it was so much fun to see the robot performing well.

So that's the long story of why there is no Spring Break camp this year!