Local robotics teams head to FIRST World Championships in Detroit

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About 40 schools came to compete in the fourth annual FIRST Robotics district event Friday, March 29, 2019 at Marysville High School.
Brian Wells, The Times Herald

Cros-Lex senior Nicholas Matthews last went to the FIRST World Championships as a freshman with Da MOOse, an independent robotics team in the Blue Water Area.

Four years later, Matthews is captain of Da MOOse. In his last year of high school, Matthews will be able to compete at the FIRST World Championships one last time

“As a senior… it’s very great to end a FIRST career at worlds,” he said. 

The team is comprised of students from around the Blue Water Area who’s high schools don’t have a team, who are home schooled or otherwise aren’t part of the other high school teams. Cros-Lex didn’t have a team when he started with robotics freshman year, so he joined the independent team

Looking toward his future, Matthews will be studying computer science and programming at the University of Michigan. 

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Richmond Blue Devils sophomore Melissa Rochon, right, watches coach Brandon Potts make several last-minute adjustments to their robot before the FIRST Robotics district event Friday, March 29, 2019 at Marysville High School. (Photo: Brian Wells/Times Herald)

“FIRST was a big part of that,” he said. “I didn’t even know what major I wanted to go into or what field, but it only took one meeting with my robotics team the very first year to decide that this is what I want to do.

“I’m really glad that I stuck with it and I’m really glad my parents convinced me to go to that first meeting.” 

Matthews team won’t be the only local group heading to the FIRST World Championships in Detroit’s Cobo Hall next week. 

Da MOOse, Port Huron’s Mecanum Knights, Richmond’s Blue Devils and Algonac’s Full Metal Muskrats will be competing in the FIRST Robotics Competition World Championship. 

Michigan has an allotment of 90 teams permitted to represent the state at the competition. Algonac’s Full Metal Muskrats were at first ranked 91, but another team ranked above them dropped out,  opening their chance to compete, said Sebastien Cournoyer, the team’s coach. 

Algonac junior Shelby Woods won the Marysville competition’s Dean’s List award — recognizes outstanding student leaders — and will continue on to compete for the award at world’s. 

Getting a robotics team to the world championship is expensive. Mecanum Knights business manager Kristen McRobie said the team is spending about $10,000 between competition fees and travel accommodations for about 40 people. The team has done bottle and can drives, sought individual sponsors and done raffles to raise the funds, McRobie said. 

Local Teams are are also competing in other FIRST competition categories at the world championships. FIRST Lego League, Jr. is intended for kids aged six through 10 years old. The Algonac Moon Muskrats and the Memphis Bee Coders will participate at that level, according to a news release by the Blue Water Area Robotics Alliance. 

FIRST Tech Challenge includes grades seven through 12, the Algonac RoboRats and Memphis Wild Bees will be competing at worlds in that category, the release said. . 

The competition runs from April 24 through 27. 

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