Elyria High alumna makes history

3 area high school teams competing in Louisville, Ky.

Three Lorain County high school robotics teams will compete in the VEX Robotics World Championship, which began April 25 and run through April 28 in Louisville, Ky.

Elyria High School Robotics team, 11124R-NDO_ Robo, and two Brookside High School teams of Sheffield, 6403A-A For Effort and 6403B-Rapture, will participate.

The championship will be available to watch online at www.ro-botevents.com/vextv for the entire the competition.

Elyria and Brookside are the only Lorain County teams competing at the high school level, according to VEX Robotics. And 576 high school other teams will trek to Louisville.

International teams include high schools from Singapore, Australia, China, Canada, Spain and Malaysia.

Brian Kokai, director of technology operations at Elyria High school, said any of two different teams will be paired together and compete against two others.

Elyria High will provide a viewing of the competition during its duration at the school’s Imagineering Hub, 601 Middle Ave. in Elyria, Kokai said.

It will be available for those who would like to stop in and cheer on their fellow classmates when they have the free time, he said.

A showing of the competition also will be available at the district’s administrative building, 42101 Griswold Road in Elyria.

A time and date will be announced at a later date.

Kokai said Elyria Robotics team members from middle and high school levels are gathering to watch the World Championship finals on April 28 and see the next season’s game revealed.

“(Classmates) are watching most students who they have been coming to school since they were in kindergarten,” Kokai said. “It’s great how the Elyria community can watch, younger kids can watch and parents or teachers can see their students competing.

“Normally, you have to read about (an event like this) in the paper, but it’s really cool to have a live feed and watch instead.”

Kokai said he and Elyria City Schools are proud of the NDO_Robo team for making it to the VEX World Championship in a 2-yearold program.

The robotics teams have put in countless hours into their robots during school hours and breaks.

Students will get the experience of meeting and playing against people from all around the world, Kokai said.

Kevin Landis, technology teacher and robotics advisor of the Sheffield teams, said broadcasting the competition is a great idea, but they are not showing it as a school or community.

Landis said he sent out a link to district administrators so that they can watch it.

This will be A For Effort’s second year back to the World Championship and Rapture’s first.

Landis said Rapture has improved this year and hopes the team has a great experience.

A For Effort has been ranked number one all year and team members are hoping to improve on last year’s 6-4 competition record.

Landis said, unfortunately, the team did not make it to the final stages of the elimination round, but believes they can make it this year.

The elimination round occurs on the last day after all teams compete in the championship.

At the end, only 16 teams from six different divisions are left in the fight for the title.

To get a look of all teams competing, visit www.robotevents.com/robot-competitions/vex-robotics-competition/RE-VRC-17-3805. html and select the Team List tab.

Check out the Team List tab to get a listing of all teams and countries participating.

When on the site to watch the competition, www.ro-botevents.com/vextv, click on Webcasts then Vex Robotics Competition–High School and drag the Research Division into the TV Area.

To view all competition dates and times for all teams, download the VEX via application in your app store on your smart phone.