NEW PALESTINE — Sitting inside the New Palestine High School auxiliary gym waiting for another round of competition, two freshman robotic team members from Greenfield-Central High School were tinkering with their robot, named Meatloaf.
“We’ve had better performances,” G-CHS student Brayden Simpson said.
He and fellow freshman Hayley Schnecker say, despite the less-than-stellar showing at the robotics competition event at NPHS this past Saturday, it had been a fun day testing their skills and learning more about electronics.
“I like building and being able to make something from the ground up and see it do what I want it to do,” Hayley said.
The team was one of six from G-CHS participating in the first official Vex Robotics Competition (VRC) to be hosted by NPHS. Dave Post, coach of the NPHS robotics teams, had five different NPHS teams competing during the day-long event that attracted over 50 teams from all around the state.
“This is the first year that we’ve hosted the VRC event after being involved in it for some time,” Post said.
The best thing about the competition, Post noted, was allowing the students to experience all the life lessons that come with competition.
“If you go to the pit area where all the teams are working on their robots, all the teams are helping each other, working together,” Post said.
Most of the teams participating were from Central Indiana, but the competition was open to every team in the state. It took a lot of work from Post and officials at NPHS to pull off the event, which included getting 30 volunteers to help out, including former students who are now at Purdue University.
“The competition has been going really well, and our teams have been having a good season,” Post said.
Post relied heavily on G-CHS robotics coach Nick Kerkhof, who brought a lot of the technology needed to host the tournament.
“I kind of got thrown into this when I took the job about 12 years ago, and now I spend my weekends in the winter helping run tournaments and set up tournament all across the state,” Kerkhof said.
Through the years, Kerkhof has seen what this type of competition has done for students in helping them develop skills and participate in extracurricular activity.
“It gives them a niche and a place to showcase skills that are not commonly seen,” Kerkhof said. “From the beginning of the season until the end, we see a huge amount of growth in the kids and it’s the same from the time they’re freshmen to seniors where they become mentors to the younger kids.”
Both Post and Kerkhof say it’s great to see the students develop those soft skills needed to be productive in the business world.
“This is not all about math and science directly,” Kerkhof said. “This is a lot about project management and teamwork … We’re training them for job-specific things.”
One of the NPHS team members, sophomore Joseph Long, was deep at work in the pit area of the main gym making adjustments on his robot that had been working well all day and said the competition really is a lot of fun.
“It’s fun to hang out with lots of different people and take part in a friendly competition,” Long said. “We’re doing OK so far today. We’re 2-2.”
A group of young men from Riverside High School was one of the 53 teams competing and said the competition had been a great experience getting the chance to go against so many teams.
“It’s actually really fun competing with my friends, and we’re actually meeting a lot of new people and having a good time,” Riverside student Gavin Jones said.
He and his teammates appreciated the hospitality at NPHS.
“These guys are all really fun to hang around,” Jones said. “Competition wise, we could be doing better.”
Jenni Dropsey was one of the many volunteers who helped make sure the event came off well. She has two sons in the Southern Hancock school district who take part in school robotic programs.
“The program is amazing,” Dropsey said. “The things it teaches the kids go beyond robotics as they’re learning career skills.”
