Clarke Central High School senior and robotics team captain Samuel Ivy works on the team’s robot in preparation for the state competition. Ivy enjoys robotics and is looking forward to the competition. “Everyone’s excited (about going to the state competition) because we get to keep going and we have a reason to keep working on (our robot). I think it’s fun to work on this. It’s something we can devote our time to and hopefully get good results out of,” Ivy said. Photo by Elena Gilbertson Hall
Clarke Central High School’s robotics team is ranked first in Georgia as they proceed to the state competition.
On Jan. 6, the RoboGlads, Clarke Central High School’s robotics team, competed in the FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) semifinals and took second place, securing them a spot at the state competition.
“We were ranked number one going into the semifinals, but we came in second at the tournament because our wires broke in the very last two matches,” CCHS science department teacher and Robotics Club sponsor William Swain said. “But we had gotten far enough to ensure going to state.”
Since September, the team has been putting in numerous after school hours to prepare for the competitions. According to team captain and CCHS senior Samuel Ivy, that work has paid off.
“We started working on this robot in late September and actually built the whole thing in about three weeks but we’ve made so many modifications to it, it’s ridiculous,” Ivy said. “We work on it pretty much every day and it’s a lot better than it was (originally).”
Ivy is looking forward to the state competition on Feb. 24.
“It’s pretty good to know the work paid off. We have about two months to get ready for (state), so there are going to be some robots there that get wildly improved and we won’t really know what anybody’s got anymore,” Ivy said. “I’m nervous, but I’m excited that we made it. That’s what I wanted to do.”
If the team scores well enough at state, they will proceed to Super Regionals, taking place in Athens this year.
“One year we made it to Super Regionals in San Antonio, Texas, but we’ve normally just made it to state. This year super regionals is in Athens, in our backyard, so we’re hoping we can make it to the next leg,” Swain said.
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