STEM Academy will have two robotics teams advance to regionals in Lubbock later this month.
The Cantina Crew, made up of high school students, and Venom, featuring seventh graders, will head to the Texas West and Panhandle Regional Championship at Lubbock High School Feb. 25, coach and Project Lead the Way teacher Jeff Vann said.
His co-coach is Sarbagya Malla, a computer science teacher at STEM.
The teams’ performance at the recent FIRST Tech Challenge Midland Area League Championships earned them a chance to go to regionals.
“If they get the Inspire Award again in Lubbock … they’ll go on to world. They also have a chance to qualify for the two different state competitions. One is UIL state competition, Division 3A and the other one is for the FTC First in Texas state competition,” Vann said.
There are five students on the Venom team of seventh graders and 10 on the Cantina Crew.
“That was from a season where Star Wars was the theme and we needed to rename our team and it just stuck because it’s catchy. Nobody expects a high school robotics team to basically be named the bar group,” 17-year-old junior Forrest Harlow said.
Ethan Cress, a 17-year-old senior, said they named their robot Jabba the Bot.
Vann said the teams making it this far is “absolutely incredible.”
“We have five teams here at STEM. On Saturday, the Cantina Crew got the Inspire Award, which is actually the biggest award that FIRST has. When they look at who goes on to the next level, the Inspire Award actually comes first. And then the team captain of the winning alliance comes second. It’s the first time we’ve won an Inspire Award. We’ve been doing this for like seven years,” Vann said.
Venom got the third-place Inspire Award. Vann said they don’t get a trophy for that, but they get to move on because of their placement.
He added that The Misfits, another team, got the Motivate Award, for putting together a team brand.
Jodie Creel received the Compass Award. Vann said she has been a “super mentor” this year.
“She has helped all of our teams and basically is an honorary member of all five of our teams. She’s gone to events and she’s helped teams from all over our league. The judges saw that all season long and they gave her the Compass Award, which is usually reserved for outstanding coaches and adult mentors,” Vann said.
He added that this is the only time he’s ever heard of it being given to a student.
Vann said several team members are seniors this year, so legacy has been a big deal this year as they try to recruit members to keep the team going.
Jayden Harkey and Raynn Allen, both 13, are on the Venom team.
Harkey said it’s been a really fun experience because a couple of the members are two of his best friends.
“We have done, honestly, amazing for a rookie team,” Harkey said.
He said he joined because his brother had been in robotics. Allen said she found her interest.
“I like building things,” Allen said. “One thing I wanted to do whenever I grow up is to build a robot for Taekwondo” that you can spar with.
Jacob Vann, 12, is Jeff Vann’s son.
“My dad is a robotics teacher, so I’ve always had inspiration,” Jacob said.
Programming and driving the robot is what he enjoys about the activity. Vann is on Venom.
“I thought they did really well with the driving and the sportsmanship with all this other stuff and trying to be a better team together, as we all should,” Jacob said.
Vann noted that there are a lot of families involved in robotics at STEM.
“We have a lot of siblings and we end up with a little bit of sibling rivalry … It’s kind of cool, because that’s one of the benefits of the small environment of STEM is that you end up with a lot of family involvement, or family legacy, because they grow up going to their siblings’ robotics events, and then they get involved with it,” Jeff Vann said.
