DOWAGIAC — Monday afternoon, a handful of Dowagiac Union High School students sat in a corner room loosening screws and bolts, working to make sure two pieces of metal fit perfectly together. Soon, those pieces will become part of a larger machine used to compete in an internationally recognized competition.

Earlier this month, the DUHS Robotics Team — The Chieftainators — kicked off their 2020 season of the FIRST Robotics Competition, an international high school robotics competition. For the next several weeks, high school students will be building a competition-level robot to fit this year’s theme. At two spring competitions at St. Joseph and Gull Lake, the team’s robot will need to be able to complete a specific set of tasks while also competing against other Michigan schools.

Already students are hard at work piecing together gears and screws to build their design, and Dowagiac robotics team coach Jennings Brosnan said he is excited about the upcoming season.

“My favorite is seeing [the students] working on the design,” he said. “We are hoping for a really good season.”

Outside of the hard skills students learned by being a part of the team — such as mechanics and programming — Brosnan said students learn teamwork, self-discipline, time management and good sportsmanship. Because of this, he believes that being a part of the robotics team is beneficial to students.

“If a student is interested in using their mind in a really technical way, this is the club for them,” he said. “It’s kind of like athletics for the brain.”

Brosnan is not the only one who sees the value of the robotics team. Carson Ausra, a 2019 DUHS graduate, believes in the program so much that he returned this year to serve as a mentor for the team.

“I loved everything about it. It was an awesome class, and a lot of fun,” said Ausra, who was on the team all four years of high school. “I liked it so much that I just want to be able to help make sure they can keep doing it.”

This year, Ausra will be helping students such as sophomore Mateo Vazquez, 16, go to competition. For Vazquez, this is his first year being involved with the robotics team. Now that he is nearly two weeks into the season, he said he is having fun and working on learning to drive the robot for the competition.

“This isn’t even the competition yet, and I’m already having fun,” he said.

Dowagiac has been participating in FIRST Robotics since 2014. In that time, the team has never advanced to the state championship. However, this is the year that Brosnan is hoping that will change.

“We hope to win every year,” he said with a laugh.

However, even if his students do not take home a prize this year, Brosnan said he would be happy with their progress and ability to learn the complicated art of building a robot.

“The way I see it, if they build a robot, go to competition, pass inspection and play the game, we are doing alright. It’s not so much about the win — it’s about this,” he said, gesturing toward nearly a dozen students tinkering with various tools. “They get to be creative, learn something and come up with a lot of ideas.”