Faith Christian High School Robotics


Robotics Team Advances in 2012
to the Vex World Championship for the
Fourth Consecutive Year!

Evan & Cliff fill high goal - Daichi plans next move	Hubble Version 2.0

John prepares match loads -            Michel & Daichi await                 operator mode	Second round of judging,            culminating in Excellence Award	Team 1826 Excellence Award - Jan. 2012

"Tebow'ing"	Tournament Runner Up Alliance -                Teams 802W, 1826, & 1069

Robotics Update

by Gary Sinner

The FCA Robotics team has been busy preparing for competitions. Here is a quick update of the competition in Highlands Ranch.  We finished the qualifying rounds 3-2.  In the playoffs we were part of the number four seeded alliance, with teams from Woodlands Academy in Castle Rock and Berthoud High School.  We knocked off the number 5 seed in the quarter finals, and the beat the top seeded alliance in the semifinals.  We lost to the number two seed in the finals.  Side note:  the winners included one of the other teams from Berthoud (they have 5!)  that we were partnered with in the fall when we won the tournament in Loveland.  They had a really good alliance, and they're some good friends, so while we would prefer to have won (obviously), we are thankful for how well we did and that our friends at Berthoud did well, too.

We were disappointed to not win, but we were hoping that we might still win the Excellence Award.  The Excellence Award goes to the team that is the most outstanding in multiple areas, not just on the playing field.  Other criteria include things like how well the team interviews go with the judges, maintaining an "engineering notebook," how well the team has done programming the robot, community involvement (like the after school program we did in the fall), etc.  The judges’ interviews went really well, so we thought we had a pretty good shot this time, but didn't want to get our hopes up.  When they announced our team as the winners, we were so excited and thankful!  It qualifies us to advance to the VEX World Championships for the fourth year in a row.  What made the award even more meaningful was being told that the judges' decision for the Excellence Award was unanimous.  We've definitely been blessed this year with a really good team (both students and mentors!).  We've worked hard, and it shows.  

 Now we just need to:

• Work on a few more tweaks to the robot
• Lots more programming
• Competition in Pueblo on Feb 18
• VEX Colorado Championship in Loveland on Mar 3
• Find some corporate sponsors 
• Hold some events and/or another after school program to help raise money to go to Pueblo and to Worlds in Anaheim, CA

Sounds like we've got some work to do!!!  

Thanks to everyone for all of your hard work, support, and prayers!