Bearcat Robotics competes in Bayou Regional – Lincoln Parish Journal
Special to the LPJ
On April 4-6, FRC team #9153 Bearcat Robotics from Ruston High School returned to the Bayou Regional competition, located in Kenner, Louisiana. The competition consisted of fifty-five teams from Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas, and Mississippi and also included four teams from Mexico, one team from Canada, one team from Turkey, and one team from Poland.
Far outperforming their appearance last year, the Bearcats scored very well throughout the qualification matches. Despite a few robot malfunctions and breakages, they remained one of the most consistent teams in the matches. After two days of intense competition, with the help of FRC team #9084 The Octobots, from Santa Barbara, Calif., the Bearcats managed to disassemble the robot’s arm, replace the axle, and reassemble the arm and replace several tire treads in two short hours to be ready for the next day’s matches. Despite these hardships, the Bearcats were able to find time to help other teams, including a rookie team, FRC team #9761 LSMSA Robotics from Natchitoches, LA, who had a glitch in their coding preventing them from driving, and we ended up resolving the issue.
The Bearcats impressed the judges with their commitment to improving their robot and learning from past mistakes. After every match, the team completed a match recap paper with their performance, robot malfunctions, and needed upgrades. The team made sure not to make any of the mistakes they made in previous matches. These practices impressed the judges so much that they awarded the Bearcats the Judges’ Award. This award recognizes a team which stood out to the judges in terms of unique efforts or dynamics. The award gives the judges a chance to recognize a team who does not fit into the other, more specific, award categories.
As the Bearcats bring the 2024 competition season to a close, the team is very proud of their performance this year. The team performed much better than they did their rookie year last year, and plans to see further improvement in the years to come. The team is grateful to its 2024 sponsors and mentors including NASA, Intralox, Champion Technology Services, and Century Next Bank, and hopes for their continued support of this amazing program. We plan to expand to include a junior varsity team in the future, and the team is looking for potential sponsors to support team expansion. Though the season is over, the team is still going, making improvements, and looking to compete in the offseason at the Northshore Knockout in July.
We are always seeking community involvement with our team! If you wish to support Bearcat Robotics through a financial sponsorship or mentorship in areas of engineering, coding, CAD, or marketing/digital design please contact Sarah Wages at sarah.wages@lincolnschools.org or Kristin Bryan at kristin.bryan@lincolnschools.org.
