Monomoy Robotics Team Qualifies For Southern New England Regionals

HARWICH – The Monomoy Regional High School robotics club is moving on to Connecticut.

The robotics team of junior Josh Finkle, sophomore Tommy Chase, freshman Kade Stephens and eighth-grader Lilly Chase earned a spot in the regional championships after earning victories at regional qualifying competitions held on the Cape.

The four students will represent Monomoy as the school’s first representatives to advance to the Southern New England High School VRC Regional Championships on Feb. 26-27 at Total Mortgage Arena in Bridgeport, Conn.

“We’ve never been there before, so this is a really big step for our robotics program,” said Tommy Chase, a Dennis resident.

This year’s competition required teams to build robots that could throw a triangle-shaped ball across the playing arena.

“It is fantastic to see our robot do well and go to the next level,” said Stephens, a Harwich resident.

The building process began around the end of October and the start of November, with students spending time before and after school to work on the robot.

After months of hard work, the teammates were ecstatic to see their dedication and effort pay off with positive results in the competition.

“It was a much better robot than a lot of the other robots that I’ve worked on because it was more cleanly built and put together where everything had a designed purpose and could be coded that specific way,” said Finkle, who worked on the code for the robot.

The experience had benefits that extended beyond wins and losses, however. Each team member said they were grateful for the opportunity to come together and work alongside others while making new friends in the process.

For Tommy Chase and his younger sister Lilly, it was a special opportunity to bond on a school project.

Lilly said she’s looking forward to getting to the Southern New England Championships so the team can gain some more inspiration for future robots.

“I’m looking forward to seeing everyone else’s robots so we can try to get some new ideas,” she said. “Hopefully next year we’ll have an even better robot.”

Regardless of the outcome at the championships, it’s clear the future is bright for Monomoy’s robotics club, which included another team of Jake Terrio, Davion Dawkins, Michael Considine, Shaun Lopez and Caleb Escher that made it to the semifinals.

“I’m excited to see us grow,” Tommy Chase said. “It’s been really fun to get to this point. Throughout all the hardships we’ve had, it’s been awesome to have the teachers there to support us. We’ve gone in early an hour before school and stayed late after, so it’s been really great to put in the time and see it grow into what it has.”