The new season of robotics begins at the start of the school year. The team committed a big part of their season to building their robot. They call it the “Build Season”. Their competition season started February 18 with a duel against Lee’s Summit High School.

Robotics Coach, Jim Hartman has a good feeling about his first season coaching.

“I feel like our team has worked extremely hard, put a lot of hours in, and at this point we have 2 more weeks left in the build season. Then we have to stop building our competition robot, I pretty much think everybody feels pretty good about where we are at right now, so yes, double thumbs up about the place we are right now,” said Hartman.

There are two big competitions the team is looking forward to.

“We really only the one big competition, that’s the Greater Kansas City Regional, there will be 60 teams from around the country. Most of them are from Kansas and Missouri, then there is one from Texas and I believe another from Iowa. During the competition we will play 10-12 matches round robin style, and then there is a champion tournament based on your record. There will then be a champion and they will go to what is called a ‘World Event’  which would have 35 or 40 teams. So of course we’re very hopeful to reach that level,” Hartman said.

As for Senior, Nick Caskey, he thinks the team has come through some struggles, and is more interested on what the other schools bring to the competitions.

“This season has already put a lot of challenges on us. We lost a bunch of seniors last year and having transitioned into the leadership part of the team, it puts a lot of challenges on us because I’m learning and it takes time. I’m actually looking forward to this year’s game, it’s unlike any other I’ve ever seen. I think it will be very interesting how teams will play out and what innovative things teams will do to accomplish the goals,” said Caskey.

Along with the new season comes the new team members. Freshman Kendra Hacker is ready to support her team.

“I love competition day because I’m apart of the spirit team. Last year, we won the spirit award for having the most spirit at the competition. We bought two new megaphones this year, so we are going to win that again,” said Hacker.

The robotics team has big plans for this new season of 2016-2017. With good feelings and spirit, they hope to have a good season.