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Fitch raises funds for Robotics team
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Neighbors | Tim Cleveland.Members of the Austintown Fitch Robotics team began setting up the team's robot to be on display during the spaghetti dinner.
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Neighbors | Tim Cleveland.Volunteers got baskets ready that were given away in a Chinese auction during the Austintown Fitch Robotics team's spaghetti dinner.
By TIM CLEVELAND
With its regional season complete, the Austintown Fitch High School Robotics team hosted a pasta fundraising dinner April 3 in an effort to get a jump start on next season.
“The Robotics is an expensive group because of the cost to go to the tournaments,” pasta dinner chairperson Connie While said. “It’s really a year-round fundraising kind of thing. We’re trying to get ahead for next year so they have money to set up instead of trying to go as you go.”
Organizers expected 150-200 people to attend. Items on the menu included pasta, sauce, meatballs, green beans, salad, bread and butter and dessert, plus drinks.
In Robotics competitions, the first round is called the regular season in which each team’s robots try to complete the assigned tasks the best. The teams are ranked and the top eight teams can then draft the other teams to form an alliance and participate in the playoffs. This year’s game was to have the robots pick up a two-foot diameter ball and shoot it into a goal. Teams can earn extra points for passing the ball back and forth between robots.
The first regional for Fitch took place March 13-15 in Troy, N.Y. The Falcons ranked 11th out of 38 teams at the end of the regular season and were picked eighth. They lost in the first round to the eventual winners of the regional. Fitch also won the entrepreneurship award, which is awarded to the team the judges believe best represents how each team should franchise itself out. Fitch was given the award due to its outstanding fundraising efforts.
The second regional was much better for the Falcons. They placed second out of 48 teams in California, Pa., from March 27-29. Fitch was picked second by Team 48 from Warren. Fitch ended up going to the semifinals before losing to the eventual second-place team.
One of the 21 team members is Zack While, who is the son of Connie While, said the team was much improved for the second regional.
“In the second regional we were more experienced and we knew a lot better what we were doing,” said Zack, a senior. “It’s different from previous years. You could just have one robot that does all the work. This one’s a lot of reliance on your partners and a lot of strategy. It’s very interesting. It’s made it a lot different than previous years.”
While the regional season is over, there are three competitions left that While hopes Fitch can enter. There is an offseason regional competition in Columbus, which is mostly Ohio teams; the Ohio State Championships in Dayton; and the Indiana Robotics Invitational, which While said was essentially an all-star game.
“We’re hoping to apply this year and get in,” he said. “It’s a lot of fun. It’s the best place to go for Robotics. It’s arguably better than the world championships because it’s just the good teams.”
Whether Fitch participates in any of those competitions or not, While said he was pleased with the team’s results this season.
“We’re pretty happy with our end results,” he said. “Usually with our first regional we have all the bugs worked out. Comparatively we’ve always done better in our second regional, and this year our second regional was the best we’ve ever done as a team so far. We were very excited because we’ve never had the chance to pick so high. We’re very happy we got to work with Warren.”