Lake Ridge Academy FTC Team Competes at Van Wert Scrimmage

Lake Ridge Academy’s FTC team returned to in person competition for the first time in nearly two years. The team competed in the Van Wert Scrimmage over the January 30th weekend. This event was attended by other local robotics teams as well as judges to review the submissions.

The FTC team consisted of students ranging from 9th grade to 12th. The team focuses on the programming and engineering of a functioning robot. Due to some of the founding members of the team graduating, the students focused on mentorship and letting the younger members take on larger responsibilities. With these goals and the core values of FIRST (Discovery, Innovation, Impact, Inclusion, Teamwork, and Fun) the team set off on their season in Fall.

The team began practicing in September 2021 and created “Build Weekend” where the team worked 20 hours over 3 days. Through trials and error, the robot was completed in late November. This gave the team time to practice and tweak the final design. Over the next two months the robot was finalized and teambuilding was a key component when preparing for the scrimmage and the future of the program.

At the end of the scrimmage, the FTC team won the “Gracious Professionalism” Award as deemed by the judges. The team will continue to compete in multiple virtual competitions, in the hope of garnering more accolades. Be sure to keep a lookout for more updates on these robotic Royals!