Boulder City High robotics team to compete at UNLV

The High Scalers, the robotics team at Boulder City High School, will be competing in the Las Vegas Regionals of the FIRST Robotics Competition at the Thomas and Mack Center on the campus of UNLV this weekend.

“This is our 17th year building a robot and competing in the FIRST Robotics Competition,” said John Richner, who was instrumental in the formation of the BCHS team. He encouraged the school to field a team when his own kids were students and has continued with the team to this day though his kids graduated years ago.

“We made it to the finals in the Orange County regional, Feb. 26 to March 1 in Santa Ana, Calif., finishing on the runner-up alliance, and also competed in the Arizona North Regional in Flagstaff March 13 to March 15, where we won the Imagery Award,” he reported.

The team will be competing Thursday (today) through Saturday. The competition runs from about 8:30 a.m. until 5 p.m. each day. The competition is free and open to the public.

There is also a live-stream of the event available at https://www.twitch.tv/firstinspires2

The team has several dedicated students who have worked many long hours designing and building the robot to compete in this year’s competition. They are a small team, but manage to build functional and reliable robots that are competitive against the many larger schools that will be at the competition. This year 45 teams will be competing at the Las Vegas Regional, including teams from Nevada, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Canada, and Japan.

“Robotics has been the highlight of high school for me,” said Ben Porter, a senior who has been involved with the team throughout high school. “It’s often seen as just something for the ‘weird nerds’ but it’s a lot more than that. I encourage all students to consider joining the team, and all parents and others to support the team.

“I have grown so much from being on the team; not only in mechanical skills, but also social and personal skills. While the robot itself is a major factor, especially for me, I’ve come to realize it’s also about teaching others valuable skills that they can use in life. Robotics will leave a great impact on anyone who tries it out, I can attest to that.”

“I have coached various sports including some state championship teams. None of that compares to what we do in robotics,” said team faculty advisor Garth Schultz, a 1986 BCHS grad who also coaches the BCHS bowling team. “So few students play sports in college and even fewer make a career out of it. However, most of our robotics students have gone on to professions in some aspect of things they learned in robotics. It is so much more than just building a robot. Students have to work with other teams to strategize for matches, they present before judges, they build relationships and learn to network. This is the sport where everyone can go pro.”

Anyone who wants more information may contact Schultz at the high school. schulgd@nv.ccsd.net.