Robohawks Make Strong Showing at FIRST Championship

The Hazelwood Central Robohawks finished a day of competition Thursday night, going 3-1 on the opening day of the FIRST Robotics Championship at the Edward Jones Dome.

There are 352 teams competing from around the world this weekend in St. Louis, and the Robohawks have confidence in not only their robot, but their team as well.

“As long as we play our game, we can do anything,” team captain Luther Banner said.

Banner is competing not just for a world championship with his team, but he is also a finalist to make this year’s Dean’s List Award, which will be awarded Friday at noon by Will.i.am and a special guest. This award, named after founder Dean Kamen, celebrates the student leaders with the passion to achieve FIRST ideals. He is one of 102 nominees for the award, of which only 10 will be chosen.

If he wins, Banner will become an ambassador of sorts for FIRST. He would work with past Dean’s List winners to improve and advance FIRST for other youth, as well as receive a letter of recommendation to the college or employer of his choice.

The Robohawks started the day strong with an easy 87-56 victory during its first match.

Being partnered with two other teams for the contest caused a great deal of confusion in the team's second match of the day. The end result caused the Robohawks to miss logo points. Logo points are earned by putting each of the four shapes on the board, leading to a close 68-42 loss. Some technical difficulties on their robot’s part also played a part.

“Our three sensors that read the field and help the robot know where it’s going were a little off,” team founder and volunteer coach Cathy Sylve said. “The kids will get to work recalibrating everything between matches, and we’ll be ready to go for No 3.”

Ready they were, playing an important part in their alliance’s hard fought 114-97 victory in match three.

“We worked closer together with the teams on our alliance, and it really paid off,” driver Cameron Dozier said.

Going into the last match of the day, the Robohawks were confident they had put their one loss behind them.

“We’re feeling really good,” Banner said. “Sure, we’d like that one match back, but we’re back on track.”

There was no doubting that, as they won their last match of the day in convincing fashion, 103-62, to finish the day ranked 10th out of the 88 teams in the Galileo Division.

The Robohawks hope that even if they don’t win their division outright, they can still keep their winning ways going and be picked as an alliance member for one of the eight automatic qualifiers.

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