ST. JOSEPH — On Saturday, area robotics team 2959 Robotarians came in 10th place at the St. Joseph FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics District Competition. Forty teams participated in the regional event. ESPN was onsite to stream the competition.

The Robotarians were also awarded the Safety Award for their efforts that went above and beyond to implement safety measures for their team and competitors.

“Our robot wasn’t the best starting out, but we fixed it up as we went. It turned out ok. We made it to semifinals,” said Nathan Jones, high school junior.

“We play 10 matches in quarterfinals and throughout those, we either won and got ranking points or didn’t. That set us into a seat, where we ended up 10th overall in the competition,” said Audrey Bakerson, a senior dual-enrolled at Southwestern Michigan College. “As people started selected alliances, we moved up to the sixth seat. At that point, we got to select who we wanted to be our teammates, and once it came back around, picked our third bot to compete in the quarterfinals. Then onto the semifinals.”

The competition progresses as each team’s original robot builds are challenged with tasks and against one another. As the competitive field changes, they align with other teams to complete matches.

The students were excited to have ESPN cover their event, and felt the increased pressure to perform.

“Robotics is an official sport on ESPN,” Jones said.

“It was different because everyone is trying to look really nice on TV, competing a bit harder,” added Camden Brooks, high school junior. “We had to match that, make sure we looked good on camera.”

ESPN had covered past events the 2959 Robotarians have attended, but this was the first one in the St. Joseph district.

The coverage included not just the robots themselves, but followed closely with the pit crews as they worked to repair their robots quickly mid-competition.

Bakerson appreciated that it was an opportunity to show the different aspects of being in robotics.

“If you like engineering, come do this. If not building, then we have the marketing side of things. It’s more than just the robot. We have to code it, drive it, raise funding for it,” Bakerson said.

“It’s a business,” added Eva Schley, high school senior.

Schley added that robotics teams need creative members as well. There are creativity awards at competitions.

Team mentor Dave Goodenough has been working with robotics teams for 11 years.

“It was a good building weekend. I think we all learned a lot as a team. I think we changed some things in the middle. It’s always a task,” he said. “Our front end looks like a twisted pretzel. It’s always a battle. The kids, Camden [Brooks], he just jumps in and starts ripping and hitting him. We just try to direct as much as we can.”

During competitions, team mentor Steven Arend likes to observe.

“I like to walk around the fence and see which teams have the kids working on their robots. Those kids are putting their heart and soul into the robots,” he said.

To create further unity in their presentation and more team spirit, the team is planning to have flight suits for their next competition. They already wear matching helmets, complete with their team color, logo, and “killmarker” for each year the team member has been a member of a FIRST robotics team.

Since the students are in high school, they do much of their work after school and on the weekends.

“Usually, we have six weeks to build the robot, but here, we didn’t have a ‘bag’ date, so we had up until our first competition with St. Joe to work on our robot in the field. We had eight weeks,” Jones said.

The game is released in January. When the challenge is released, robotics programs in the state and around the country get it at the same time. The release includes specifications for the competition field, which shows them the tasks they need their robot to be able to complete.

In the 2959 Robotarians’ team space located within their sponsor Ausco Products, in Benton Harbor, they have multiple offices, storage, computers, bathrooms and a large garage door. They also have built a full-size replica of the competition field in which they test their robot out leading up to, and post competition.

The 2959 Robotarians are officially based in Coloma, but include several high school students from area schools that do not have their own robotics teams.

The team’s next event is the FIM District Shepherd Event at Shepherd High School April 2-4.