Golden Apple: Nevis Tech-No-Tigers Headed To World Robotics Competition

The Tech-No-Tigers, also known as Team 3102, are headed to the World Robotics First Championship in Detroit, MI, and they couldn’t be more excited.

“I like going to all the competitions. It’s fun going there and staying there for, like, a few days. It’s fun just being with people that like to have fun,” says Tyler Majors, who serves as a pit scout on the team.

“I’m looking forward to seeing all the other robots and what all the other teams have come up with and it’s just really interesting to meet new people and see different ideas of how to approach the same task,” says Michael Wegscheid, a driver and programmer for the team.

Team members spent a lot of long hours wiring, fixing and testing out different methods to get to this point. They say building the robot is a lot of fun, but it’s not easy by any means.

Wyatt Rech, a member of the pit crew and build team for the Tech-No-Tigers, says, “Some of the important skills you have to have is you have to be creative. You have to be able to think outside of the box to figure out a solution for a problem that you have. You have to be able to work with people and be able to communicate well within the team. You have to be able to delegate jobs and figure out what needs to get done before something else.”

“I get more confidence. I get to make new friends and I get to make memories. That’s the best part for me,” adds Chase Munn, a member of the chairman team and also the voice for the robotics team’s video.

Today, everyone in Nevis Public Schools came together for a pep rally to show the team some love.

“Big schools, they always talk about how they don’t have community support and it’s just – when we tell them that we have the community support, like, we got $20,000 from the community and they’re like ‘wow.’ It’s impressive. It wows people and we’re grateful for it,” says Madeline Mitchell, a human player for the team.

The competition starts next Wednesday. The team says they’re coming ready to play.

“It’s just been a lot of trying new stuff and seeing if it works and we spent three seasons trying to get to that point, and now we’re here, so we found something that works and we’re going to keep doing it,” says Mitchell.

Rech adds, “It proves that a lot of our hard work has gone somewhere and means something and with that we’ve learned that we’re a top tier robot. We can compete on the main stage and going to worlds is a chance to prove that.”

The team plans to post updates of their time at the World competition on their Facebook page. You can check it out here.