By Roger Pugh
Contributing Writer
The Okarche Robotics team is headed to the state meet next month after recently finishing third at the Regional meet in Mustang against 24 teams.
The state meet will be held at Southwestern State University’s Wellness Center in Weatherford and the Okarche team, known as the Warriorbots will face about 45 other state qualifiers.
The Warriorbots have qualified for the state competition every year since the program’s inception in 2011. The program was started by Nathan Brooks and is now sponsored by Adam Wilczek, the Okarche Technology Education teacher.
When the program began, there were only a couple of students participating. Today, the Okarche team consists of 11 students. Although the team has become a regular at the state meet, it has yet to qualify for the Super Regional but that is the goal of this year’s team.
Members of the team are Darren Rayburn and Payton Kerby not pictured are Koby Mingus, Preston Hawk, Jaxon Vallerand, Graci Willcutt, Rachel McDowell, Kelsee Brown, Kody King, Chloe Wanger, Trenton Neiderer, PK Harris.
The Warriorbots compete in the First Tech Challenge program.
Each year the teams have a different assignment and must build a robot that can perform the assigned task.
The Mission of First programs as described by founder Dean Kamen is “To transform our culture by creating a world where science and technology are celebrated and where young people dream of becoming science and technology leaders.”
Kamen saw that future jobs and the future of humans was becoming increasingly dependent on technology and engineering. He wanted to create a competition that inspired, educated, and prepared youth to go into fields involving science, technology, engineering, and math. First is not solely focused on robots and engineering though. The program also fosters the development of well-rounded members of society. The competition also includes awards focused on judges’ interviews, community outreach, and team pride.
Among the sponsors of the First program is the movie Star Wars
The Okarche Junior team, co-coached by Michelle Ellington and Robert Ford, also qualified for state in their age division, known as the First Lego League. Okarche also has four elementary school leagues which compete in the First Lego Leagues Junior category.
