Keweenaw Report Your Source for Local News and Sports
The CopperBots of Calumet are ready to defend their state championship as the 2019 build season gets underway.
The robotics team from Calumet High School has made it to the state championships at the First Robotics Competition three straight years and have been to the World’s Competition twice. They were co-state champions last year along with the other two teams in their alliance at the competition.
Instructor Todd Waurio says that’s no small feat considering there are some 600 teams in the state. “And there’s no divisions,” he said. “This is just—everybody is on that same field whether you’re from Calumet, MI or you’re from Detroit and you’re building your robot at the GM Proving Grounds.”
Team Captain and senior Tajah Davise says they have to start over every year, building a new robot. “During the six week time that we’re allotted to build our robot, we choose specific aspects of the game that we want to do and hopefully do better than most robots in order to compete on that state and world level,” said Davise.
The “game reveal”, which lets the teams know what their robots will need to be able to do, was last Saturday and they have six weeks until bag day when they can no longer work on it, which is February 19th. The first competition is in Kingsford in March.
You can follow the progress of the team on www.copperbots.org or by liking the Calumet CopperBots on Facebook.
The entire interview with the CopperBots—instructor Todd Waurio and team members Tajah Davise, Zander Worm, and Lowell Torola, can be heard on Copper Country Today on January 13, 2019 at 7:00am on 97.7 The Wolf, 8:00am on 99.3 The Lift, and 9:00am on K-Bear 102.3. The podcast will also be available on www.keweenawreport.com.
