Wolfpack Goes Nuts (And Bolts) For VEX Robotics

With only a few seconds left on the clock, our robot flung a backpack-sized cube clear over a fence to the opponent's side of the field to secure 13th place in the NJ State VEX Championship. West Morris Central High School’s VEX Robotics team, The Wolfpack, already competed in three competitions before the championship but the thrill of a last second victory never fades

Each year, the robotics company VEX creates a new competition and this year it is called “Starstruck”. The format of Starstruck allows for teams to create alliances and compete to see which duo of teams launch the most 12 inch stars and cubes over a fence and into the opposing team's’ territory. Team’s compete in local competition to qualify for the state championships.

The Wolfpack was formed in November, about midway through the VEX robotics season, with the idea that students in the high school need to have an outlet to apply and improve their technical and engineering prowess. The objective was for students to immerse themselves in the areas of Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) through the fun of building robots. The ultimate goal was to have a robot capable of competing at one of the local competitions. The dream of going to the state competition was scoffed at and rarely discussed.

The Wolfpack made up for their lack of experience and late start, quickly learning the basics of building and designing robots. More importantly, the students learned group dynamics skills like conflict resolution and teamwork to overcome obstacles and troubleshoot problems.

Competing in the local competitions was challenging enough but when the team found out they qualified for states they knew they had to step it up and create a new robot from scratch. In the short span of two weeks consisting of late nights trying to form sheet metal and debug programs, the team had a fully operational, competition-ready robot.

After the qualification rounds of the NJ Championship the top 8 teams choose their alliances. Even though The Wolfpack finished 13th in the qualification rounds they were not selected for the playoffs. The team was disappointed the season had come to an end because they did not do well enough to control their outcome. One would be hard pressed to hear a complaint out of The Wolfpack though. RIght after the decision, the team started figuring out how they could improve for next season.

The Wolfpack consists of 10 students: Michael Huizenga, David Huizenga, Joshua Michonski, Clayton Bernardi, Spencer Caro, Anthony Litkenhaus, Ben Atkinson, Vincent Vuskalns, James Popovitch, and Andrew Galloway. Most of whom are sophomores and are returning to compete next year. The future looks bright for these budding engineers and scientists.

*Next year West Morris Central High School is hoping to expand to two teams but to do this we need more supplies. If you would like to sponsor the team and have your business on the back of our team shirts please email Kevin Smedley at ksmedley@wmrhsd.org