One of our most important teams here at Sahuaro that doesn’t get the same recognition other teams do, is our VEX Robotics club. On Saturday February 8th, McConnell Gym was filled to the brim with robotics teams from all over Arizona, even as far as New Mexico, to compete.

This tournament was special for a few reasons. First, one of the teams was made up of all girls; something that’s extra special because the field is normally dominated by boys. As senior member Alex Thwaits said, “It’s kind of intimidating to be like the only all girls team that’s at the competition normally, but I mean as long as you have a good robot I normally don’t let it phase me.”

Second, this was the biggest robotics tournament that Tucson has ever seen with 33 teams competing. They came from far and wide and ranged from middle school to high school.

Sahuaro’s Robotics Club is responsible for organizing and setting up the tournament with help from friends and volunteers. The club is sponsored by Mr. Christian and Mr. Davis, who are both involved in STEM.

The way that a robotics tournament works is that there are rounds of qualifying competitions where two teams play against each other in the game of the year, Tower Takeover, and then those teams who win move on to go up against each other in the actual tournament. In the singular games themselves, the goal is to rack up the most points by putting cubes in goals and placing them in a cube tower. If a cube is placed on a cube tower, that color cube is now worth an extra point, but other than that, the cubes are worth one point each once placed in the goal zone. The official VEX Robotics video on this topic can be found here for more information.

After the final match the tournament champions turned out to be the alliance of Sahuaro and Chaos Theory.

The official trophies are up for grabs for various winners in different categories and the overall winner.