The Robotics program offered at Park is putting another list of awards under their belts at their annual VEX robotics state championship that was held at Fairmont State University. All respective Wheeling Park teams (626269W, 626269X, 626269Y, 626269Z, 626269P, 626269K) showed respective dedication throughout the season leading up to the event, and the tournament itself.
Dr. Shepherd is the coach of the Robotics team, a teacher of the robotics courses, along with being a teacher of physics. He credits most of their success to their practices, and the times spent working on their robots.
“Teams put in a lot of work after school, starting in June. They practice regularly, and they also spend time outside of practice at home. Practice consists of brainstorming ideas, building and rebuilding robots, documenting the process through an engineering notebook, practice game play and coding, and tweaking all aspects of the robot after each competition,” said Shepherd.
Not only this commitment to their progress and success is shown through their performance, but it was displayed when all six park teams qualified for States, which is something that Coach Shepherd is distinctly proud of.
“Over the last several years, we have made it a priority for all of our teams to be qualified for states early in the season. I’m so proud that all of our teams set and met this goal. It really speaks to the commitment of our teams,” said Shepherd.
Robotics is a multifaceted extracurricular. Not only is there the task of building a robot that works with the required task efficiently, but the documenting of the engineering process is a big factor when it comes to individual team awards. The Innovate Award, the Design Award, and the Excellence Award all require a notebook entry to receive the award.
This year, Wheeling Parks team 62629X took home the Excellence Award. The Excellence Award is awarded to a team that deserves recognition for their overall performance, team interview, and documentation of the progression of their robot.
All teams competing at the event also displayed incredible teamwork efficiency, and commitment not only throughout the season but at the States. As a result, helped secure many state championship titles for the program.
“Iron Patriots X-Ray and Yikes left the state tournament as tournament champions. Aligned together, they worked their way through the round of 16, quarter-finals, semi-finals, and best of three finals to win! They played another Park team, Platypus, in the finals. It was a great day! All of teams made it to the round of 16! X-ray was also the Excellence Award winner and the Tournament Skills Champion, earning WPHS’s first “triple crown” at a state tournament. Yikes also won the Think Award,” said Shepherd.
Sophomore Mya White is a member of team 62629Y and serves as the notebooker. She shared her overall excitement for winning the tournament.
“Winning states with my team really meant a lot. We’ve been working non-stop all season, and winning really proved all that time worth it. After we saw the score for the second finals match, it really solidified that our team had improved over the past year, and that this season was one of our best,” said White.
The gears on these teams haven’t stopped whirring yet, along with winning many State championship titles, three teams (626269P, 6262629Y, 626269X) have all earned a ticked to VEX Worlds held in Dallas, Texas this May.
“Three teams – X-Ray, Yikes, and Platypus – earned spots in the Vex world championship in Dallas, TX this May. We can’t wait to watch them on a bigger stage! We will resume practicing and preparing for even tougher competition,” said Shepherd.
Sophomore Alex Zhao is a member of team 626269X and shared his excitement for Dallas.
“I am very excited for the Vex Robotics Worlds Championship because I am looking forward to meeting all the great teams from around the world and competing at a very competitive level. We will prepare for the competition by fixing up our robot, fine-tuning our programming, and practicing for interviews,” said Zhao.
