BUCKSPORT, Maine — Bucksport High School's robotics team has had a successful seventh season, becoming two-time event winners and ranking first in all of New England and tenth in the world.
The FIRST Robotics competition runs every year starting in January, tasking teams to design, build, test, and battle their robots in unique challenges. This year's challenge, Charged Up, has teams stacking and balancing cones and boxes with their robots as fast as they can.
Team 6329 mentor and coach Mike Gross said this has been the team's best year yet.
"It's been a long time coming. We have a lot of second place finishes, but this was our first blue banner," Gross said. "I was down on the play field with the drive team and it was quite a exciting, emotional time for us."
Cody Monreal and Harry Foster are on the drive team. This year, the team color-coded the robot's lights to indicate what game piece they're after. It's an edge the team adopted early on.
"Me and Harry, we've been driving for months, so we've gotten used to how fast the robot is, we've gotten used to the timing," Monreal explained.
"It really helps us strategize with our teammates on the field," Foster added.
The team's success started with humble beginnings back in 2017, when Gross realized the school needed more STEM programs. He said the team is now a great way for students to apply their classwork while hanging out with other students who have the same passion.
"Oh, I'm very proud of this team," Gross said. "They realize they really like engineering. We have several students who have gone on to engineering schools."
The team is set to compete at the district championship in Massachusetts this upcoming weekend before heading to the world championship in Houston, Texas later this spring.