GREAT DAY TO BE A BRAVE: Gladstone Robotics Succeeds At World Championships

CLICK BELOW TO HEAR JACK HALL’S INTERVIEW WITH COACH TIM BARRON

CLICK BELOW TO HEAR JACK HALL’S INTERVIEW WITH BRAVE BOT PRESTON PETERS

It was quite a week for the Gladstone High School robotics team as they competed in the FIRST Robotics world competition in Houston, Texas.

The Brave Bots Team 4391 made it to the final rounds of the competition before losing their final match Saturday evening. At one point, they won seven matches in a row. They finished 8-2 to advance to the knockout rounds, where they won their first match before losing the final two. The Braves finished the early rounds so high in the standings that they got to be a team campaign, allowing them to pick the alliance partner they wanted (the Green Machine from Edina, Minn. , the Pitt Pirates from Greenville, NC, and the Millennium Falcons from San Diego, Calif.)

“We ended up ranked seventh on our court out of 75 teams,” Brave Bot Coach Tim Barron told RRN News on Sunday as the team made the long drive home. “There were teams from all around the world. We had teams from Israel, Turkey, Hawaii’s not another country, but they’re from a long ways away. So, we got to see a lot of different people.”

“It was really cool to see everyone there,” Gladstone player Preston Peters added. “Everyone was super-nice, and all the teams that were there were really good. They were good competitors. The amount of fields that were there, and all of the people, I just think it was amazing.”

The robot was designed to pick up foam rings and shoot them into targets, and then climb at the end of the match. Peters says a lot went into building that robot for it to be able to make it through districts, the State of Michigan, and eventually, to this world competition.

“We started in around January,” Peters said. “We put in 20 hours a week, so we put a lot of time into it and I think it held up really well. We had a couple of fixes that we had to do, just minor fixes, but other than that, I think it help up amazing.”

The team’s journey to Texas began on Sunday, April 14th, as they started on the 1,405 mile drive. They were able to have a day at the beach in Galveston on Tuesday, but then, it was all work, on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.

“We’re tired,” Barron said. “We’re all tired. A full week on the road together. But it was a lot of fun and the kids had a lot of fun. It was sad to lose. We lost to the eventual champion from our court (division), so we had a fantastic season. We’re going to go into the off-season thinking about all the good times.”

“Going to World’s is something that not many people can do,” Peters said. “The fact that we had the privilege to do it was amazing. It was a very awesome experience.”

The Brave Bots thank all of the sponsors who helped the team throughout the season, and especially for the trip to Houston.

—CREDIT: Gladstone Brave Bots photos—