Electro Eagles Fly High But Need Funds to Compete in State Finals

It's been a dream opening season for Hartland High School's FIRST Robotics team, but supporters say it's about to end too soon.

The Electro Eagles — who have only eight students in competitions where teams often have more than 50 — have won rookie awards and already likely qualified for the state finals. But organizers say they are short the $5,000 needed to register and for other expenses for the April 7-9 state tournament at Eastern Michigan University.

"If I could take every pint of blood in my body for these kids and sell it, I would," said Matt Bednarski, the team's coach. "They deserve it, so we're trying to find the money to get to the next level."

With lots of high tech, the sport is expensive and the team has already used a grant from JCPenney to get off the ground while Genoa Township Lowe's has offered help with discounts. The Eagles used the support for their robot, EPIC I, their mini-bots, and other supplies.

The team includes students from and . The squad's motto is "Build Within Our Means" and its members have used that frugal mentality to get to where they are, holding bottle drives, selling candy bars and looking for sponsors to raise money.

The support enabled them to currently snag the 30th spot in the state out of 171 teams and capture the rookie awards at the two competitions the squad participated in this season.

The team finished third at Kettering University out of 37 teams. Later in March, they placed eighth out of 41 teams at a competition in Ann Arbor. Those rankings, and the points earned at each competition would put them in the state finals heading into this weekend's final qualifying events. Organizers say it's unlikely a team could bump them.

Qualifying with only two events is significant because most teams participate in several competitions to take advantage of a system that only counts the top 2 performances.

"We're up there as one of the Cinderella stories for robotics," said Jeff Schlueter, a parent-adviser for the team, who holds out hope some in the community can help.

The team formed after Bednarski, a Hartland parent and engineer, visited the high school last December and gave a presentation on robotics hoping to generate interest in a team.

Bednarksi already had experience with FIRST Robotics from working with his sons Miles, 13 and Mitchell, 11, in the FIRST Lego League (FLL) division of the program — which teaches children about engineering concepts, teamwork and professionalism. Founded by entrepreneur Dean Kamen in 1989, FIRST stands for For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology.

Billed as a "varsity sport for the mind," the robotics competitions have grown in popularity in recent years. The intensity of the events — where crowds of parents often bring a athletic atmosphere — was unexpected by many on Hartland's team.

"Kettering was our first event and we really didn't know what we were jumping into. We walk in the doors and there are robots going all over the place, people yelling and mascots jumping all around," said junior Kyle Stout, 16.

If the team goes to the state competition, Schlueter said he hopes more people from Hartland will attend to support the squad.

"So few know about us," he said. "We've got nobody cheering us. We've love to see more people out there."

If you would like to help the team, contact Bednarski at intiernascar@hotmail.com.

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