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GOLD! members are (left to right) Jenny Tu, Bobby Barton, Audie Miller, Coach Vic Miller, Tristin Bell, Reese Rodgers, Clayton Eyre and Nathan Pyne.
The Silsbee High School’s GOLD! Robotics traveled to Houston and won the UIL Class 4A VEX Robotics Texas State Championship on Feb. 11.
The team’s two robots took both first and second place and was the sixth tournament championship team GOLD! has won during the school year. The state championship was the first and only tournament this year in which SHS’s team GOLD! was able to compete against schools in the same classification.
GOLD! competed in VEX robotics and this year’s VEX game is called “Spin Up,” which robots face off against each other in 2-versus-2 matches to see which team can pick up more foam discs off of the field and successfully shoot them into elevated baskets in the field corners.
In addition to scoring discs in goals, robots must also be able to spin multi-colored rollers mounted on the field walls to represent their team’s color, and in the closing seconds of the match, each robot must expand to cover as much of the field surface as possible to earn bonus points.
The GOLD! team competed in several tournaments in the Houston area against Class
5A and 6A schools, private schools, magnet schools for gifted students, and magnet schools that specialize in the science and technology. Against the high level of competition, GOLD! enjoyed their impressive steak of tournament championships and brought home 30 engineering and performance awards.
The members are Bobby Barton, Reese Rodgers, Clayton Eyre, Jenny Tu, Nathan Pyne, Audie Miller, Tristin Bell, and Jenny Tu. Their coach is Vic Miller, a 26-year veteran of coaching competitive engineering and robotics teams.
“I have never had a team who accumulated so much engineering knowledge so quickly. Most teams just use dead reckoning to shoot their discs, but these kids use an array of sensors and complex algorithms with trigonometry to continually track the goal during a match. It’s truly extraordinary work, and I feel very blessed to have such a talented and hard-working team this yearm” said Miller. “They continue to amaze me.”
The team has one tournament remaining at a qualifier tournament on Saturday, March 4 in Houston. They will compete against the top schools in the region for a spot in the VEX Robotics 2023 World Championship in Dallas in April.