Score one for the alliance: Plymouth-Canton wins robotics world title – Hometownlife.com

The celebration was on after Team 862 and its three alliance teams embraced a world championship.(Photo: Team 862)

In battle, it's all about who's fighting by your side.

Over the weekend in St. Louis, Mo., Plymouth-Canton's FIRST Lightning Robotics Team 862's foxhole was filled with winners.

Team 862, making its 15th trip to the FIRST Robotics world championships, combined with three other teams in its alliance and captured its first career world championship, topping a field of more than 400 teams.

With Team 862's robot, Valkyrie, running gears like a champand the other three alliances doing what they do best, the four-team alliance Team 862,Team 2767-Stryke Force from Kalamazoo, Team 254-The Cheesy Poofs from San Jose, Calif.,and Team 1676-The Pascack PI-oneers of Montvale, N.J. the alliance was able to capture gold.

The Cheesy Poofs have won the world title before; it was a first for the other three alliance members.

Members of Team 862 from Plymouth-Canton celebrated their subdivision win and a national title.(Photo: Team 862)

"We have one of the best gear running robots ... so we were very good at delivering gears to the Air Ship," said Jay Obsniuk, faculty adviser to the robotics team. "We were fast and dependable. For the end game, we never missed climbing the rope, which was a 50-point score. There were a lot of teams that struggled at this. We were a very dependable robot, doing what we could do 100 percent of the time and veryreliable."

It would have been easy for the team to falter. After all, it had lost in the semifinals in three previous competitions, including the Michigan state competition. Then, at the Michigan state championships, Valkyrie lost its bell pan. Competition rules say teams can't work on their robots except in competition, so Team 862 had to wait until it got to St. Louis to make repairs.

The team missed a practice match Thursday night, then lost four close matches Friday "The robot was fine, but things just didn't go our way," Obsniuk said but managed enough qualifying points to continue. It won four matches (though it lost a replay of one of them) and, with a robot in good shape and showing what it could do, Team 862 was chosen for the finals alliance.

Team leaders agreed being picked by the right alliance was a key.

"I just think altogether we were just a really good robotand we were picked by an amazing alliance," said Canton High School senior Jerry Nicklas, who was part of the team's electrical subgroup. "We had great chemistry. Cheesy Poofs and Stryke Force were really good shootersand we were primarily a gear robot, so that expanded our chances."

With all the trials and adversity, it would have been easy for the students to fold. But a funny thing happened on the way to the title: they bonded.

"You could tell they were frustrated, but with some motivationalspeeches and the fact that they are great kids, they never got down," Obsniuk said. "They tried harder, were even more determined, full of spirit, dancing, cheering and getting to know the over 30,000 other students there, learning from other teams and becoming a very solid team.

"It showed on Saturday, during the subdivision matches. The robot prefor

Lighting Team 862 members Joe Jagadics, Vivian Clements, Tyler Harris, Abby Morningstar and Luke Fenstermacher, with Valkyrie.(Photo: Team 862)

med great and the students even preformed better," he added. "Leading cheers, firing up the drive team and working with the other students on the other teams to help win the matches."

Salem High School senior Josh Markey, a member of the fabrication subgroup, was experiencing the world championship competition for the first time.

He called the frenetic pace the team competed 12 times in two days "amazing."

"The three or four days wentby in a blur ... everyday was fun," Markey said. "It was insane to watch us plan 12 matches in two days. It was awesome."

Not only did the competition yield a world championship for Team 862, but several of its members won individual honors. Obsniuk said seniors won scholarships from schools like Kettering, Michigan Tech, Lawrence Tech and UM-Dearborn, among others. Team president Allison Hurley won scholarships from Kettering and from the Bosch Corp.

"The students never got down, they worked hard on strategy, kept the robot in top condition and talked to the other teams. And they did it on maybe four or five hours of sleep every night," Obsniuk said. "The kids were fantastic."

bkadrich@hometownlife.com

Twitter: @bkadrich

Support was high for Lighting Robotics Team 862 from Plymouth-Canton.(Photo: Team 862)

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Score one for the alliance: Plymouth-Canton wins robotics world title - Hometownlife.com