B-B-E Resistance Robotics gears up for Regional No. 1! (VIDEO)

The B-B-E Resistance Robotics team is settled in and ready to go for the Great Northern Regional competition at the Alerus Center in Grand Forks, North Dakota. This year's competition is called "Charged Up" with a nod towards the fact that countless modern-day devices (necessary or just amenities) rely on battery power. The basic regional schedule has the robotics team in an inspection and practice day today followed by two days of competitions on Friday and Saturday. The team's robot was ran through five practice scrimmages today on the arena floor. Progress grew with each time on the floor, and the fifth time was the charm! The robot completed all the tasks they wanted it to for that fifth run, which included operating in an "autonomous" auto mobility mode where no manual controls are used and then a period where the robot collected and stacked competition pieces in a grid before balancing itself in an endgame park on what is dubbed a "charging station" before the session was complete.

Day Two of the regional consists of seven matches each per team in their respective alliances. B-B-E's team is in the Blue Alliance. Day Three on Saturday will have three final matches.

*Here's a video featuring footage from that fifth practice scrimmage tonight in Grand Forks:


Robotics coach Reed Adrian was thrilled with that last try on the competition floor. What they accomplished today bodes well for the actual competition that gets started early tomorrow morning. The doors open at 8 a.m., and the competition heats should get going by 9 a.m. NOTE: late tonight, a formal schedule will be posted to this blog post for when the team's first heat of the morning takes place. They will run a rigorous schedule. It will be exciting!!

B-B-E's official F.I.R.S.T. robotics homepage can be found here: https://www.thebluealliance.com/team/4238/2023. FIRST stands for "For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology" which is an international youth organization that operates the FIRST Robotics Competition, FIRST LEGO League Challenge, FIRST LEGO League Explore, FIRST LEGO League Discover, and FIRST Tech Challenge competitions.

The newspaper's entourage arrived late in the afternoon after having a difficult drive north, plagued mostly with minivan mechanical issues. The drive from Fargo to Grand Forks was actually quite good with limited patches of icy interstate. We got here safe and sound, and that's what matters!

This weekend in Grand Forks is the first of two regional competitions that the team will compete in. The second takes place in LaCrosse, Wisconsin two weeks from now.

The Voice entourage is enjoying a peaceful evening of hotel time tonight. Everybody Loves Raymond is the feature show on our hotel room's TV. The rest is welcome. Tomorrow will bring about 15 straight hours of work, beginning with robotics coverage and ending with girls' basketball coverage!

***Friday morning update: the team's first match is at 09:40. The second match is at 11:01. 

***A new blog post is up as of 10 a.m. Friday.

Robotics, robotics, robotics!!

They are in 19th place!

The B-B-E Resistance Robotics team climbed to 19th place out of 63 teams after their final match was completed at 9:30 this morning.

**Below, a glimpse just minutes after the robot returned to the B-B-E team pit. Team members are attacking it with another round of repairs and modifications.


And! For the first time in school history, Team Resistance has been included in the playoffs as an alternate. They are currently No. 3 on the alternate list. This is an incredible achievement for the youngest team B-B-E has ever fielded.

The playoffs began at about 11:30 a.m. Now the team waits while being ready to jump into action the moment they're called up.

Also, the team earned a prestigious award that will given to them during the awards ceremony that takes place later this afternoon to conclude the Lake Superior regional.

For the upcoming robotics season, a major recruiting effort will take place at B-B-E high school. Parents, grandparents, etc. need to strongly encourage their son/daughter to become involved in the team. There's no reason that the B-B-E Resistance Robotics can't have 30 kids involved in this activity!

Robotics, Day II: let the games begin!!

The Lakes Superior regional competition is underway in Duluth!

Action has been fast and furious for the B-B-E Resistance Robotics, as the team has competed in two matches so far this morning. They tied the first one by a 12-12 score and won the second one 31-26.

Overall Team Resistance sits in 34th place out of 64 teams.

*By 11:35 they should be in their third match of the competition.

Click on this link to see live updates (searching now for it) ....stay tuned.
HERE'S the link: https://frc-events.firstinspires.org/2019/MNDU/qualifications.

*Update through three of B-B-E's matches, and overall 25 of 95 matches complete, Team Resistance is in 37th place out of 63 teams.

In Match No. 3, Team Resistance's alliance lost 66-41. They're now 1-1-1 overall. Their robot had a
full range of motion for the first time of the day. Their arm was not operable, however.

**Below, a glimpse of the pit and team booth after the third match was complete:


Round IV: we're up at 13:55!

*Update: Team Resistance Robotics lost their fourth match of the day to turn their record to 1-1-2. Their alliance lost by a close margin, 49 to 38. One other team in the alliance was from Bemidji, while the other was from Cass Lake-Bena high school. They've fallen to 47th place out of 63 teams.

Their fifth match took place shortly after Match No. 4...and their sixth match of the day is schedule for 4:49 p.m. You can find their direct team robotics page at https://frc-events.firstinspires.org/2019/team/4238.

**Update: with six matches complete, Team Resistance has climbed to 40th place out of 63 teams. And they have one more to go tonight closer to 18:00.

Time to shift attention to the basketball game in Fergus Falls!

Season kick off

The B-B-E robotics team Resistance is at Central Lakes College-Staples this morning hearing about their 2018 competitive season's challenge. They will have six weeks to design and build their robot to compete in the F.I.R.S.T. robotics regional competition on the first weekend in March at the Duluth Entertainment and Convention Center in Duluth.

What is FIRST Robotics? FIRST stands for "For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology" which represents the core mission of the entire program and subsequent competition. It is a co-ed extracurricular activity that blends the excitement of both rigorous science and technology-related work along with good ol' hard-nosed competition that's no different than two football or basketball teams going at it on the athletic playing field.

The FIRST robotics competition is thought of as the ultimate "sport for the mind" - with high school students calling it "the hardest fun you'll ever have."

Below, some video from the event in Staples:


Next week's Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper will have a feature story on the robotics team and the upcoming competition. You can also read more here = https://www.firstinspires.org/robotics/frc.

##ConquerEveryDay

Robotics at regionals

Here's another update from the Bonanza Valley Voice for the B-B-E robotics team in Duluth!

http://www.bonanzavalleyvoice.com/story/2017/02/23/bbe/terrific-first-day-for-b-b-e-robotics/429.html

Robotics fish fry tonight!

Above is the B-B-E Robotics robot used during the 2012 season. It's shown on display at the State tournament Pep Fest held on March 21, 2012 at the high school.

Don't miss out! It starts at 5:00 at the Belgrade V.F.W club.

They've been working hard at preparing for the big robotics competition in Duluth (March 6-8) and definitely need the support from Jaguar Country to keep the program thriving.

See you there for some great food and great company.

**Radio notes: 106.5 FM The Train will cover this Saturday's Jaguars boys' basketball game against Sauk Centre and the evening game featuring our Jaguars girls' basketball team against Melrose Area. They'll also be at the home game next Tuesday against Maple Lake. On Thursday, February 13, The Train will cover the girls' basketball game at Eden Valley-Watkins.

Robotics fish fry is coming!

Mark your calendars for Tuesday, February 4, when the B-B-E Robotics team will host their second annual fish fry fundraiser at the Belgrade V.F.W. A silent auction will also take place. The time that evening for the fundraiser is 5:00 to 8:00pm.

It's a rare non-Wednesday winter night when there are no athletic contests. So there's no reason not to come down and support them while getting an awesome supper!

Organizers of the event reported that they are still looking for silent auction donations from area individuals and B-B-E businesses.

The fish is great! They're serving until 8

Serving up some great food tonight at the B-B-E Robotics Fish Fry fundraiser.

If you get a chance before 8:00pm tonight, stop down at the Belgrade VFW for the Fish Fry! (Details just below here)

Who ordered the snow? grr!!!

*Don't miss this! B-B-E Robotics hosting Fish Fry fundraiser on Wednesday

Above, the robot built by the 2012 B-B-E Robotics team, shown driving through the Belgrade August Fest parade.

One of the event organizers sent me this message regarding tomorrow's B-B-E Robotics Fish Fry fundraiser and Silent Auction held at the Belgrade V.F.W. starting at 5:00pm.

We have many great silent auction items, and the money raised from this fundraiser will support the Team "Inferno" at the FIRST Robotic Competition in Duluth on March 6th - 9th.

Silent auction items include Minnesota Twins Hall of Famer Bert Blyleven signed print, casino packages from Grand Casino - Hinckley, Prairie's Edge - Granite Falls, Seven Klans - Thief River Falls, many area gift certificates and many more items.

*A side note / correction: the Seniors Night for the Jaguars girls' basketball team will be held next Monday during their game at the high school against Ashby.

B-B-E Snow Week update: the Snow Week Pep Fest will be held from 2:15pm until the end of school on Thursday. The main gymnasium has to be cleared out on Friday afternoon and prepared for the Final Four wrestling tournament that night.

* Another note: for anyone with any interest in Pope County, Minnesota and its communities, here's a Facebook page link that features photos and video highlights from a small amount of the events and activities taking place around that part of the world. Click to 'like' the page:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Pope-County-MN/189288867770992

...and here's the blog link:  http://lifeinpopecounty.blogspot.com

Can't miss mentioning...B-B-E senior Tyler Tensen won his 100th career match last week and has over 20 wins so far this season. He's shown getting a win last night after pinning David Ambriz of LP-GE in one minute, 12 seconds.

*And another note: I mentioned a few days ago that Holdingford won the Central Minnesota Conference wrestling title this year. That's only partly correct. The Central Minnesota Conference wrestling title was split three ways this year, as Pierz, Kimball Area and Holdingford all finished 5-1 in duals. Kimball Area beat Holdingford 33-30, Pierz beat Kimball Area 34-28 and Holdingford beat Pierz 29-28 to force the logjam at the top of the standings.

Great news on the B-B-E Robotics team

Click here to read an article at the Sauk Centre Herald website that gives a few updates on how B-B-E's Robotics team fared at the Lake Superior Regional in Duluth over the past two days. The competition just wrapped up earlier this afternoon.
http://saukherald.com/main.asp?SectionID=12&SubSectionID=49&ArticleID=13889

A quick update from Duluth...

I just got a report from Mr. Gjerstad and the B-B-E Robotics team as they dive into a full day of competition today at the Duluth Entertainment and Convention Center. The B-B-E team is having a spectacular day after getting the bugs worked out of the Phoenix, their robot, during the practice sessions yesterday.

Fun fact: the B-B-E team is one of 10 "rookie" teams out of 65 total teams at the Lake Superior Regional in Duluth.