TDHS Robotics Ranks 4th in the Nation, 8th in the World
TDHS robotics poses with their Vex Robotics Division Champions poster. Pictured: (Right to left) Colin Schecter, Ian Castaneda, and Jack McAllister
By Cole Goodwin
Two The Dalles High School robotics teams battled it out at the Vex Robotics World Championship on May 5th, 6th, and 7th in Dallas, TX.
While TDHS is home to four robotics teams, only two made it all the way to the world championship System Overload, a team made up of sophomores: Ian Castaneda, Jack McAllister and Colin Schechter and irrelevant, a team made up of seniors: Angel Garcia, Theo Sandoz, Makayla Williamson, and Abijah Patterson
Competition was fierce as 818 teams battled it out to become the Vex Robotics world champion. Teams began by being randomly split into divisions made up of 80 teams.
“There are no 5A or 4A categories when it comes to these competitions,” said Charles Webber, TDHS Robotics coach. “We’re just a small school but we still competed against teams from schools that have thousands of kids and much bigger budgets.”
Day one at the competition proved to be a mixed bag of triumph and sorrow for the teams. Each team had to compete in seven random qualification rounds to advance.
System Overload was the winner of the day, winning all seven of their competitions and coming first in their division, while irrelevant won three and lost four of their competitions ranking in at 57th in their division.
After such a tough first day irrelevant was feeling crushed by the slim chance of advancement.
“It was tough to have two teams perform so differently on day one,” said Webber. “Team irrelevant was feeling pretty down, and I just had to keep reminding them that they were at the World Championship and that no matter what happened they were still one of the best teams in the entire world.”
Day two of the competition brought the final three qualification rounds.
System Overload won all their competitions except their last match, bringing their overall win-loss ratio to 9-1 and pushing them into second place in their division.
Team irrelevant finished 6-4 pushing them up to 20th place in their division.
“Day two irrelevant promptly ripped off three straight wins, including beating the #1 ranked team in their division from Nebraska,” said Webber.
Out of 81 teams in each division, only thirty-two made it to the elimination rounds, in which a win means another chance and a loss means you’re done for the year. System Overload and irrelevant both made it into the elimination rounds.
“Eleven teams from Oregon had qualified for the tournament but only three made it to the elimination round and our teams made up two of those three,” said Webber. “The other Oregon team that made it was from West Salem.”
Team irrelevant lost their first elimination round, but took the loss in stride and settled in to cheer on System Overload which had been seeded as the #4 highest ranked team in the tournament.
On day 3 the competition moved into the concert arena and the event became jammed packed with 4,000 spectators, lasers, and smoke machines,
“It was nuts,” said Webber.
A look at the stage from the crowd. Photo Credit: Charles Webber
Then things took an unexpected turn.
All the top ranked teams in the tournament lost to underdog teams in the final elimination rounds– including System Overload.
Even so, this small team of sophomores from The Dalles High School still managed to be the 4th best robotics teams in the nation and the 8th best in the world giving them plenty to be proud of. After all its not everyday you find yourself holding the title of one of the top ten teams in both the national and the world.
“If at the beginning of our season back in October if you had said we'd have a state champion team that was 4th in the US and 8th in the world, I would have said you are crazy,” said Webber.
“They’re only sophomores and they've already gone to a world championship. System Overload has two more years of competition remaining and has set a very high bar for themselves, and if this year is anything to show, it's going to be a wild ride,” said Webber.
TDHS Robotics teams Irrelevant and System Overload from The Dalles pose after winning the Oregon State Robotics Championship. Pictured from left to right : (front) Abijah Patterson, Angel Garcia, Theo Sandoz, (back) Chuck Webber, Makalya Williamson, Ian Castaneda, Colin Schecter, Jack McAllister, Lu Seapy.
And while irrelevant’s robotics competition days are over, they’ve had a good run, (two of them have been in robotics since 4th grade) and are ready to head off to college.
“I’ve got to tip my hat to both of these teams,” said Webber. “Being a coach of robotics is very different than coaching baseball. I’m not even allowed to touch the robot. In fact they could be disqualified if I did. They have to do everything on their own. So, I’m more like a mama duck helping them get to where they need to go than anything else.”
Webber also had high praise for the TDHS staff, The Dalles community, and the families that pitched in to make the World Championship a reality for System Overload and irrelevant.
“The community has been amazing,” said Webber. “Without the donations received we couldn’t have paid for these trips to nationals and to the world championship. The families of these kids were amazing as well. I had five sets of families that showed up in person in Dallas to support their students. And the staff were amazing too. It was great to see everyone rallying around supporting these kids. And they have so many more opportunities now that they’ve done this. Once you make it to the World Championships you start getting invited to all kinds of different tournaments and that opens a lot of doors.”
Will you help the TDHS Robotics Club?
The club relies on sponsorships and donations to attend tournaments, if you would like to help send our students to regionals, state and hopefully the world competion. Email charles.webber@nwasco.k12.or.us for more information on how you can support TDHS robotics.
