March 26, 2018
By Kelli Gile, Office of Community Resources
DIAMOND BAR, CA--After a long weekend of broken parts and design flaws to overcome, Diamond Bar High’s Team Sprocket took home the prestigious blue banner as winners of the 2018 Orange County Regional FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) on Saturday.
The team has now qualified for the World Championships that will be held in Houston, Texas on April 18-21.
“We couldn’t have done this without all of the support from our members, alumni, parents, mentors, teachers and our sponsors,” said senior captain Karen Tan after the four-day competition held at UCI Bren Events Center.
“We will first celebrate the accomplishments of our hard work over the course of the season, and then we will focus on learning from the mistakes we made this year, so we can improve our program and grow to be even more successful in the future.”
On Friday, the competitive robotics team hosted 36 students from Chaparral, South Pointe and Suzanne Middle Schools to tour the FRC competition pits and enjoy matches in an effort to inspire the next generation of engineers.
After two days of game play, Sprocket #3473 finished qualification matches with a record of 7-3-0 and ranked 12th out of 52 teams.
The team was then selected as the 1st pick for the 3rd Ranked Alliance, including alliance members “Assembly Required” (Santa Margarita) and “The Midnight Mechanics” (La Jolla).
In the exciting Finals match, Team Sprocket defeated the 1st ranked alliance (2-0).
“This accomplishment is even more impressive considering that the #1 Alliance consisted of the #1 & #2 overall ranked teams. Team Sprocket and their alliance members stunned the arena by taking down “Goliath” in two straight matches with an unconventional defensive strategy… securing the title of FRC Orange County Regional Winners,” said instructional dean and advisor Gabriel Aguilar.
This is the second year in a row that the Diamond Bar High team qualified to compete at the World Championships.
“This is a testament to the high quality instruction that these students are receiving in DBHS STEM classes!” Aguilar added.
Shown:
Diamond Bar High’s Team Sprocket swept the competition at the OC Regionals on March 24.
WVUSD middle school students support Diamond Bar High’s Team Sprocket at OC Regionals on Friday.