“Our team shows class and a high level of integrity in everything they do. They have been recognized for it twice by winning the excellence award, which is the highest honor of each competition. They have represented Holly Pond well and we have a lot to be proud of!”Shawn Johnson, team mentor
JACKSONVILLE – Today, Saturday, March 5, the Holly Pond Robotics Team is at Jacksonville State University competing in the Alabama State VRC Tournament. The team consists of three students- Dexton Jones (sophomore), Zachery Ayres (freshman) and Rylan Griffin (seventh grade)- and two mentors- Shawn Johnson and Howard Cole.
Holly Pond’s team competes in VEX EDR robotics. Find out more at http://qrne.ws/vexedr.
The VEX Robotics Competition is presented by the Robotics Education & Competition Foundation. It is considered to be the ultimate STEM activity for middle school and high school students ages 11-18. Each year the students are given an engineering challenge which is presented to them in the form of a game. Students, with guidance from their teachers and mentors, use the VEX Robotics Design System to build innovative robots designed to score the most points possible in qualification matches, elimination matches and skills challenges.
“The winning team from each qualifier match throughout the season gets invited to the state tournament,” said Johnson. “The winners at State then get invited to the VEX World Tournament in Louisville, Kentucky in April.
“We are a rookie team this year and have won two tournaments, the Calhoun County VRC Qualifier and the Oxford Middle School State Qualifier,” Johnson continued. “Each tournament usually starts with 30-40 teams. After four qualifying matches, the top eight teams are team captains. The captains choose alliances of three robotics teams, and the tournament is played with those alliances. Two robots per alliance compete at a time, with a total of four on the playing field. The object is to pick up 4-inch foam balls and shoot them into a scoring basket.
“Our team shows class and a high level of integrity in everything they do,” he smiled. “They have been recognized for it twice by winning the excellence award, which is the highest honor of each competition. They have represented Holly Pond well and we have a lot to be proud of!”
Keep up with the Holly Pond’s team on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/HollyPondRobotics2015.
This story will be updated after today’s tournament.
