As the new school year jitters begin to disappear from many clubs and sports around Jesuit, one club in particular prepares for a competition not of strength, muscle, or even the ability to manipulate a ball. Instead, the Jesuit Robotics team builds for an intense season of competition characterized by the ability to maneuver a robot, the process of trial-and-error, and, most importantly, unbreakable teamwork that will culminate at FIRST Robotics competitions in the upcoming school year.
Senior John Sauer, Vice President and Captain of Software and Electronics for the team, believes that the team’s “goal for this year is to win a regional competition in the spring and to adequately prepare younger members to take leadership after this year’s seniors graduate.” As a seasoned member of the team, he is able to help with the training of underclassmen and have “much more say on strategic decisions for the team.” As Vice President, Sauer takes on a large portion of the tasks that make robotics such a demanding extracurricular, making “all decisions regarding software development, train teams for electronics and programming, and program difficult tasks for the robot.”
Most of the pre-season preparation for the Jesuit Robotics team revolves around “building teamwork and building skills that are focused on communication among team members,” according to Club Moderator Mr. Michael Couvillon. Every year, the team is faced with a different goal or task the robot must complete. This unique feature of this activity certainly demands a great amount of commitment and grit out of the team as a whole since the competition they will face remains a mystery until six weeks prior to the first competition. In addition to the challenge already stated, it’s imperative the six-week preseason be used effectively.
However, the team’s preparations began early in the summer to ensure success and possibly lay the groundwork for another winning season. The team held two one-week long boot camps, one in June and another shortly after in August. Anirudh Kantareddy ’18 explained that “this year we did not want to make the same mistakes so we trained on fixing those problems. We always start with a team-building activity, because emphasize it and recognize it as a key to success. Then we had the kids break up into small teams and simulate the FTC challenge. We came up with our own game and had teams compete with each other.” Along with training the freshman class with the various array of skills one must have to be successful on the team, “These camps have proven to be useful as in the last couple weeks, teams have been more productive than last season as a whole,” concluded Kantareddy.
A veteran member of the team, Michael Mong ’16, President of the team, believes the “main goal is to keep improving ourselves and I have seen this happen from my years on the team. This is most evident by the founding of the FTC team for the off-season.” The FIRST Tech Challenge features smaller robots and can most closely be related to a Junior Varsity caliber of competition. But, don’t let this fool you; for the teams consist of members of every class-level in the program. Mr. Couvillon sees the benefit of this team structure as an “intimate team experience.” Indeed, the six teams of 4-6 members each produces a tightly knit rapport that can transfer onto the higher levels of competition with the varsity level.
The team’s unique structure also manifests in the mentor-mentee structure in which upperclassmen have the opportunity to truly coach and mentor the underclassmen. A sophomore himself, Kantareddy believes that “our team in unique in the sense that we are mentor-guided, student-led. We have great mentors who are very skilled and we are thankful to them.” Couvillon attributes the mentorship essential to serving and fulfilling the profile of the graduate and graduation since he “think[s] each of the competitive programs focuses on different aspects of the individual and different interests. We are servicing the people who want to explore interest in engineering and develop a competitive passion for it.”
As a supplementary, yet driving force of the program, Jesuit welcomes mentors from third parties to help assist with the team’s development. Heavily oriented around engineering and fabrication, many careers are represented in the lab on the first floor of the Terry Center. Mr. Couvillon explains the program as “servicing the people who want to explore interest in engineering and develop a competitive passion for it. That’s part of the reason why it’s a mentor program; we bring people in with engineering jobs and have fabrication careers and passions that they share with the kids.”
Along with the mentorship utilized by the team, Kantareddy observes that “through their experience, the upperclassmen have perfected their skills and know what is expected of them and how to do well. They know what is important to the team, such as the values of teamwork. They are the backbone to the team and they deserve a lot of credit.”
The Robotics team’s first major varsity competition is over Easter break of next year at the Irving convention center. Wish the team a successful season or go out to see them compete if you’re in town over Easter!
