The robotics teams meet Wednesdays from 4:10-5:20 in the Auto Tech room to prepare for their second season. Bert Bronaugh and Bryant Griessel sponsor the three teams: Juggernauts, Dynamics and Ingenium. 

“This year I want to be competitive,” Griessel said. “I want to be able to not just be that new team. I want us to actually have a shot at going to nationals and finals. That’s our future goal.” 

The club’s first competition will be on Nov. 12. At competitions, the robotics team will partner with a random team to go against two other teams to complete the task. 

“I like going to the competitions and being able to talk to the other teams that we ally with,” Captain of the Dynamics Isabel Gutierrez said.

Gutierrez and David Von Paumgartten founded the club in September of last year and the team began competitions late in the season during October. 

“We didn’t even have our parts in,” Griessel said. “When we arrived at the event we arrived with a chassis with wheels and a motor, we hadn’t even figured out how to turn on. We get there and a bunch of teams from everywhere just help us out.”

 Griessel said the other competing teams helped the JHS robotics team finish the robot, program it, everything. They told the coordinators they didn’t have a fully functioning robot and they said come anyways and they, would help us build one. And they did.

“Last year we didn’t win anything, but the first time we picked up an object and made a point, everyone was saying ‘Yeah!,’” Griessel said. “The other team had 40 points and we scored our first one, but we’re proud of that one point.”

The club is a good way to have fun with friends and learn new life skills. 

 “I think it’s a very nice way of communicating and hanging out and having fun,” Co-Captain of Ingenium Tristan Tucker said. “You learn a lot of stuff with problem-solving.”