As the deadline for registering for competitions arrived, the robotics team decided to not register, marking the second year in a row the team will not participate in any tournaments.

“The robotics team was not signed up for any competitions,” club sponsor Mary Anderson said. “They did not have a working robot and therefore they were not registered to compete.”

The robotics team didn’t compete at all last year. They were signed up for competitions, but the robot required for the competitions wasn’t built in time.

“The students don’t put in the five to 10 hours a week extra that is needed for a robot to be built,” Anderson said. “Long and hard hours need to be put in for the team to be successful, and many of the schools that compete have an elective class devoted to robotics. Many of West Shore’s robotics students are overbooked as it is, so a schedule has been hard for them to come up with.”

Members of the club were ultimately unhappy with the fact they will not compete this year, but realize there will not be time to have a working robot ready for any competitions.

“The fact that we can’t compete in competition was really a disappointment for our whole crew,” freshman Geoffrey Garrido said. “We continue to build our robot now, but unfortunately it’s just a vain activity.”

However, Garrido has an optimistic outlook on this experience.

“Hopefully, we can use what we learned this year for next year,” he said.

Anderson shares Garrido’s positive reflection on the experience.

“The kids are now working on having a base working robot that we can add onto next year when competition is announced,” she said.

By David Anderson