Hundreds Turn Out For Peekskill High School Robotics Tournament

When you walked through the doors of Peekskill High School’s gymnasium on January 27, the scene was one you would expect to see at the Westchester County Center, not your typical high school gym. The Second Annual First Tech Challenge (FTC) Peekskill Robotics Tournament held at the school that day drew nearly 300 attendees and welcomed 19 teams from across the region, from Yonkers to Plattsburgh. Multiple work stations and "playing fields" filled the floor as students, parents, teachers, elected officials and PCSD administrators made their way around the room.

“The day was pretty amazing,” said Peekskill Robotics Teacher Mr. Carlo Vidrini. “We received complements from each of the visiting teams and even the judges. Everyone I spoke to that came to the tournament at PHS all said they would be looking forward to returning to our school because this event has become one of the best in the region.”

The January event was a qualification tournament to determine which of the competing teams would proceed on to the regional tournament scheduled to take place at Pace University this Sunday, February 11.

Both of Peekskill’s Robotics teams participated in the day’s events on January 27. The school’s senior team, the Iron Devils served as the hosts of the FTC event, and the school’s junior team, the Mechanical Devils, spent the day competing.

Even though the Mechanical Devils placed twelfth at the Jan. 27 tournament, they will still attend the Pace competition as they pre-qualified for the regional event thanks to their success at the Riverside competition in Yonkers on Jan. 20. Vidrini said that the Peekskill tournament was important for the Mechanical Devils to participate in because it served as a chance to trouble shoot new task solutions before the team heads to Pace University on Feb. 11.

Peekskill’s Iron Devils, who also helped set up the tournament, will automatically advance to this weekend’s regional tournament at Pace as well.

Those that place at the Pace competition will proceed to the Super Regional Competition in Scranton, where they will be up against the best 72 teams in the Northeast.

“I’m really proud of the progress of our teams and the growth of our Tournament from 2017 to 2018 – it’s been great and the atmosphere is fantastic,” Vidrini said. “Everyone is ecstatic to be coming to Peekskill and we are very happy to welcome them. We’re already looking forward to bringing competition back in 2019.”

Note: Event photos courtesy of Peekskill High School student Olivia Paul