ESCANABA — The Gladstone Bravebots robotics team were the district event winner at the FIRST in Michigan District Escanaba Event, a robotics competition held in Escanaba over the weekend

The BraveBots finished the Escanaba tournament this weekend with a 15-2 record and is currently ranked ninth in the state.

The Gladstone BraveBots competed against 38 other teams from Michigan hailing from both the Upper and Lower Peninsula this past weekend in Escanaba. The robotics season kicks off the first week of January and continues to the end of April. Each season teams compete in two district events and secure enough ranking points to be able to compete in the state championship held at Saginaw Valley State University. The top teams finishing at the state level are then invited to play in the world championship held in Houston, Texas.

The BraveBots first competition of the 2024 season kicked off in Escanaba this weekend where they were able to team up with teams from Houghton and Menominee to secure a blue banner in the finals match.

“We have a very young team this year,” said Coach Tim Barron. The BraveBots lost four seniors last year and every main position within the team had to be filled with students who were new to their position. Matthew Hagebush (Sophomore) and Logan Vesser(Junior) secured the drive positions, Owen Labadie(Senior) is our technician, Peyton Rohr (sophomore) earned the Captain seat plus and Teegan VanTassel secured the lead scout position (freshman). “To say I was nervous about the depth of our team is an understatement. But it became clear by the second week of our build season that this is one of the hardest working group of students I’ve ever had.”

FIRST Robotics Competition challenges teams around the world made up of high schoolers — often mentored by graduates and others with useful knowledge and experience — to practice engineering, programming and other relevant skills to build and drive robots to complete given tasks. Each year, a new game is unveiled, and the thousands of teams across 31 countries all must work within given parameters and with the same objective.

It’s been just two months since FRC presented the rules for “Crescendo,” the 2024 game. During matches, six teams play at a time and two alliances, each made up of three individual teams, compete against one another to score points. There are a few ways points can be earned. Crescendo is music-themed, so game play reflects this. The object is to get orange rings referred to as “notes” into structures called “speakers” and “amps” along the sides of the field or “onstage” in the middle. Matches are just two-and-a-half minutes long and include a 15-second autonomous period — wherein programmed robots drive themselves — before a second phase allows drivers to remotely operate their robots.

The BraveBots schedule during the build season is practice six days a week with an average of 22 hours a week. It’s a tough schedule for students who have to maintain good grades, participate in other sports, keep up with family activities and some even hold down outside jobs.

“I preach every day about what it takes to be a BraveBot and that the harder we work the luckier we will get. I know our schedule is tough but these kids never complained, they showed up, worked together and put in more than what was asked. I can’t be more thrilled that they were rewarded for their effort”.

The BraveBots will move on to their second district next weekend at Lake Superior State University. To see the matches online tune in at bluealliance.com. Barron recommends that you keep an eye on the team’s killer autonomous (first 15 seconds of the match where the robot is programmed to run on its own) and the skills of our drivers. “These kids performed great in their first competition. I can’t wait to see what they do when they get more experience.”