ROBOT: ‘It’s finally hitting us that we’re going to the Worlds’
“It’s our baby,” said Natalie LeVally. “We are proud parents of this robot.”
The robot has affectionately been named Chaos by the group, and after it competes in the 2017 VEX Worlds Robotic Competition April 19-22 in Louisville, Ky., it will be retired from competitive use, said Todd Chambers, who advises the student club. The Blazers will be going up against 562 other teams from around the globe.
The group raised $9,000 within a month after it won the state sportsmanship award qualifying the club to attend the Worlds competition. Most of the money came from donors such as the Foothill Lions Club.
“Our robot is capable, and it can do a lot of things other robots can’t do,” Chambers said. “I think we have a shot, and we have a lot of awards to shoot for.”
The robot weighs about 23 pounds and is limited in size to a cube of 18 inches. The robot has been rebuilt about six times over the past year.
“Almost everything on there has had a problem we’ve had to remodel,” Chambers said.
Instead of going on fami- ly vacations or staying home, the Blazers were meeting every day during spring break to fine-tune their robot.
"This week is like our crunch time,” LeVally said. “It’s finally hitting us that we’re Worlds."
The team is polishing a sonar device, which emits a tone when the robot has risen more than a paper’s width above the walls enclosing the competition going to arena. While at the state competition, judges ruled the team had not met that requirement, costing the team its match, Chambers said.
“We were steamed, but we kept our composure,” said Isaiah Lawson, a builder with the team.
Lawson said the team’s reaction to the ruling, coupled with their respectful decorum, won them the sportsmanship award.
Jazmine LaCount, vice president of the club, said she was so shocked that her team had the opportunity to go to Worlds that she double-checked with a judge after the announcement of their state award.
“It feels like with what Lindhurst has given to us, we’re giving back with a new club students can go into,” LaCount said.
A majority of the Robotic Blazers are seniors and will be graduating in June. Many members will be attending Yuba College before moving on to fouryear universities.
“I think most of us are coming back as coaches next year,” LeVally said. “We can’t give this up.”
As the Blazers head off to Worlds on Tuesday, LaCount hopes her teammates will participate in her good luck ritual: wearing pink socks.
“One day I just wore pink socks,” she said. “It became a thing to wear pink socks to competitions.”
Ryan Ledesma, who formulated the idea of bringing a robotics team to LHS, said he’s confident the team will bring home an award.
“It’s a dream come true,” Ledesma said. “We’ve come a long way."