Milan Alliance Wins, Dexter Takes Second, Chelsea Earns Top Award at Robotics Competition

High School Robotics teams from across southeast Michigan gathered March 6-8 at Chelsea High School, which hosted a FIRST Robotics qualifier. It was Chelsea’s first time hosting a competition. Robots competed for top honors as 39 teams began the race toward the state championship.

Top-ranked teams, Rush and Strike Zone, selected Milan’s team, Code Red Robotics: The First Responders, to form an alliance and together they took first place.

Dexter’s Dreadbots ranked third heading into the playoffs and their alliance finished second overall. The team also received the Judges’ Choice Award.

Chelsea’s team, Technical Difficulties, earned the FIRST Impact Award— the competition’s most prestigious honor—recognizing their work to strengthen robotics in southeast Michigan and around the world. The team hosted a week 0 scrimmage, organized the Chelsea competition, mentored a robotics team in Hungary through weekly online meetings, and more. 

Last year, the team also received the state-level Impact Award at the Michigan Championship.

Most teams attend two qualifiers each season, hoping their robots earn enough points to rank among the 160 teams that qualify for the state competition.

Dexter

The Dexter team also celebrated a milestone:  10 years without a robot fire.

One of the team captains, Izzy Martinez, said the story of the LED’s that once caught their robot on fire during state competition is still an integral part of the team’s culture.

“The students rebuilt the robot so well it’s what inspired other mentors to take a step back,” she said.

Co-captain Luke Baur enjoys that freedom.

“Around the time I joined [robotics] I was into doing my own programming,” Baur said, adding that robotics gave him a place to see his ideas come to life. 

He wrote the aiming and shoot-on-the-move code for the team’s robot for his International Baccalaureate Computer Science class, taught by Drake Reinert, also one of the team’s mentors, and made adjustments during competition as problems arose.

As the mechanical lead, Martinez repaired the robot in the pit between matches, her pink handkerchief on her hair like a modern Rosie the Riveter. 

“I just really loved [robotics]. What really drew me to stay was the comradery,” Martinez said. “Seeing something you worked on for months go on and win—not even the competition, but [just] a match—is amazing.”

Milan

Milan’s team stood out for its small size—just six students—and grit. This year the program faced significant challenges after two teachers who coached the team for about a decade had to step back. Without a teacher leading the program at the high school, the team also struggled to recruit new students. 

To keep the program running, Chris Overbeek, Software Engineering Manager at Lakeside Software, and Chad Strimpel, an engineering designer at Ford, moved from mentor roles to serve as coaches, while additional mentors joined to support students. 

“Chad and I decided to coach because we both have been with the team for 10 years and we couldn’t bear the thought of the team ending,” Overbeek said. “When no district employees responded to the request for a new coach we decided we needed to.”

Students worked to rebuild the program by launching social media marketing campaigns and outreach events to attract new participants and community support.

Drew Biederman, a Milan High School junior, first became interested in coding and design while participating on the middle school robotics team. That program was led by Spanish teacher Doña Anna Arroyo, who spent a summer teaching herself coding to run the team when no one else would. He said he stayed committed based on encouragement from team leaders Eowyn Johnson and Jackie Lambert. This year he also worked as the human player, loading the hopper, and helped with marketing.

“I think it’s challenging there’s not a lot of people,” Biederman said, “but we push through and found a way to make it work.”

Biederman and others’ faces beamed when they were picked by the top teams and went on to win the competition.

Former team captain Eowyn Johnson returned Saturday to support the First Responders. Johnson, now a freshman at the University of Michigan, is majoring in cognitive science with minors in economics and music.

“There is no shame in being a small team,” Johnson said, adding, “what matters is people are still showing up.”

Johnson said she has seen how robotics opened the door into STEM fields for many of her former teammates, some of whom now study computer science, mechanical engineering and environmental engineering at the University of Michigan, Michigan State and Michigan Tech.

The skills she gained from robotics transfer over to her university studies – ranging from interviewing skills to managing a busy schedule.

That opportunity for learning is what keeps the coaches and mentors going.

“When my kids got involved, I did because it let me share some of my knowledge and skills while spending time with my own kids,” Overbeek said. “I’m still doing it because there are many students who can benefit from the program and I get the delight of seeing them learn what they are capable of.”

Chelsea

Anne Findlay, Chelsea Robotics advisor, started robotics as a seventh grader at Beach Middle School and mentored a team while in college. She returned to Chelsea as a high school science teacher and continues to strengthen the robotics program. Today one in 10 middle schoolers joins a team.

“Nearly everyone involved—aside from me—is a community volunteer or a parent of students on the teams,” Findlay said. We currently have about 150 K-12 students participating across 15 different teams.

In 2019, the Chelsea community approved a bond that funded an auxiliary gym at the high school and converted part of the old high school into a robotics center. The upgrades made it possible for Chelsea to host a competition.

“Once the second gym was added, we realized the high school would be a great venue for an event,” Findlay said.

“Last year, we served as FIRST in Michigan’s backup event site, ready to step in if another event needed a last-minute replacement,” Findlay said, “While we weren’t needed, it helped demonstrate that Chelsea could support an event. This year we applied to host and were excited to be accepted.”

That strong community support has opened additional doors for students. Chelsea High School senior Hannah Lesser, who is on the senior presentation team, has been involved with robotics since she was very young, and along with senior Sophia Getty helped coach one of the elementary teams as sophomores, three times a week for 1.5 hours a day for three months.

“We have a strong pipeline,” said Getty.

Chelsea sophomore, Lane VanHevel, served as co-design lead the last two years working with 3D printing and drill cuts in the shop using machinery provided by Bosch and other sponsors.

“I just enjoy trying to design stuff, coming up with new ideas to go to competition,” VanHevel said. “I also enjoy seeing what other teams have done.”

As the event ended and teams packed up their robots, conversations turned to how to improve for next time.

“I kind of like to try new things and improve on what didn’t work,” said Chelsea senior Tyler Ward, who joined last year and now serves as team safety captain and pit lead.