For the second week in a row, Chaminade’s Eagle Engineering robotics program delivered a tournament championship, and all four of its individual teams came home with awards. At their recent Granada Hills tournament the three high school squads and one middle school team combined a record eight trophies, including the top honor, the Excellence Award, going to team 1138.

The Vex Robotics Competition (VRC) machines are the smaller and more cost effective of the two robotics platforms with which Eagle Engineering students compete. As such, the team is able to field multiple squads that cooperate and support each other off the field, but compete as separate teams at tournaments. This year the high school team is divided into three squads for VRC events: Team 1138, 1138-B and the Eagles’ first all-girl squad, 1138-G. Chaminade’s middle school competes as team 83. In four events so far this season, the four teams have combined for 16 awards, including three tournament championships.

At the Reseda Vex Victory in the Valley event held November 14, 1138 took the tournament championship with 1138-B winning the driver skills challenge. Team 1138-G won the Sportsmanship Award, and 83 took home the Think Award for programming prowess.

One week later at Granada Hills Charter High School, 1138-B won the tournament while 1138 took the top judged award – The Excellence Award. Team 1138-G won yet another Sportsmanship Award, and 83 won the Design Award, for their thorough and professional engineering process. Additionally, 1138 won runner-up in both programming and driver skills challenges while teammates on 1138-B took first place in each, the latter with a score that places them 5th in the world currently.

Both 1138 and 1138-B have qualified for the State Championship event being held in early March. 1138-G and team 83 continue to work toward qualifying in upcoming tournaments scheduled in December and January.

This year’s game Nothing But Net is a fast-paced and exciting game in which student-designed machines compete to collect and shoot 4-inch foam balls into a net. Each match features four teams with two drivers and a student coach, supported by a pit crew and a strategy team that scouts the competition and develops match-by-match game plans. Other students on the team focus on presentations to a panel of judges to to compete for a variety awards.

On December 12, Chaminade will be hosting 24 area teams in its first Vex Robotics tournament to be held in the Bob Hope Center from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Admission is free and open to the public.

For more information on Chaminade Robotics and how you can support the team, please contact Head Coach Tommy Smeltzer: tsmeltzer@chaminade.org