Team T.I.R.E.D., the school’s robotics team, has been struggling to deal with sponsor Jill Whitacre’s absence due to COVID-19. 

“Ms. Whitacre’s absence was difficult for the team since we could not meet in her room and could not access our tools and materials,” junior Adam Brandt said. 

And some of those materials are crucial to the team’s success.

“We are expected to use our own full field this year so we have had to build the parts of the field using various pieces of previous year’s fields and other parts we have lying around,” senior Sean Regan said. “The only problem is that all of the materials were in her room and the team could not access them.”

The team did attempt to make the best of this situation though.

“To combat this issue we met in a different room and used the time to discuss our plan going further into the season,” Brandt said. “Because we took the time to plan, we have a better idea for where we want to head going into the season.”

By Owen Piper