Fort Worth’s Nolan Catholic High School places third at world robotics competition

May 14, 2024

39 2 minutes read

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Nolan Catholic High School junior Kipp Henry knew it was showtime when the announcer’s booming voice shouted, “From Fort Worth, Texas, the Robo Vikes!”

Kipp quickly became immersed in the atmosphere of a robotics world championship. Fog machines, flashing lights and roaring cheers from the crowd all greeted Kipp and his team when they walked into the main arena.

“Dang,” Kipp recalled thinking at that moment.

Nolan Catholic High School’s robotics team, Robo Vikes, was one of 600 teams from around the globe to compete at the 2024 FIRST Championship in April. Robo Vikes won its division, in which four different robotics teams are grouped together to form an alliance and play against other alliances. Robo Vikes and other division winners then went on to battle it out in the playoffs, where Robo Vikes’ division placed third in the world.

Brad Billeaudeau teaches engineering at Nolan Catholic High School and is head coach of Robo Vikes. Robotics programs like the one at Nolan give students another opportunity to “go pro,” network and earn scholarships, Billeaudeau said.

“We can learn sports. We can also learn robotics,” Billeaudeau said. “It is considered a varsity sport for the mind.”

Nolan Catholic High School sophomore Marco Zana kneels next to the team’s robot, named after Carson FitzGibbon, an alum who passed away in 2023. (Marissa Greene | Fort Worth Report)

Alliances earn points by programming and driving their robots to capture bright orange foam rings, called notes, and shoot them into their team’s speaker and amp. During the nearly three-minute game, alliances have to play both offense and defense to earn points while preventing the other team from scoring

Robo Vikes started in 2011 with a handful of students and a coach working out of a small garage on campus, said Julia Ermish, a Robo Vikes mentor. Now, more than 30 students work in a state-of-the-art workshop full of workstations, tools and machines that can build parts to assemble the robot.

Robo Vikes members work in this engineering lab to build their robot. (Marissa Greene | Fort Worth Report)

Students take on a variety of roles during a competition. Some operate the robot, while others work in the pit crew or give presentations to judges showing how the robot was made.

Nolan High sophomores Tony Jenkins and Marco Zana were part of the pit crew, calling it their “home away from home” during competitions. They also make it a space where students from other teams can come for spare parts or advice.

“We’ve slowly been gaining this reputation of being a team that helps out a lot of other teams,” Tony said. “A lot of teams aren’t fortunate to have facilities like this.”

Ermish started volunteering as a mentor for Robo Vikes in 2017, when her son joined the team. She said Robo Vikes’ decision to help other teams along the way speaks to their faith.

“We’re preparing these kids to be leaders for the future,” Ermish said. “They’re helping, and that’s part of our faith is helping others, not just building a robot to win.”

Marissa Greene is a Report for America corps member, covering faith for the Fort Worth Report. You can contact her at marissa.greene@fortworthreport.org or @marissaygreene. At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.