Last year, members of the junior class worked to establish a FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) team at Keystone. We put a lot of effort into organizing our team, Reaching for the Skynet, and building a robot. Unfortunately, the start of 2020 competitions coincided with the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, so the season was canceled. 

To the excitement of the team members who joined in 2020, the 2021 season saw a big increase in membership, especially among the underclassmen. Luckily, FRC events are happening this year. The pandemic has had a major impact on all extracurricular activities, and FRC was no exception. The competition goals retain their design from the competition from the 2020 season, Infinite Recharge. However, there are no in-person competitions as there have been in the past. Instead, there are a few virtual challenges.

Some members were able to come on campus for practices, and others were not. A few team members at a time can come to each meet under our COVID safety plan. Additionally, there are opportunities for team members who can’t make it on campus to learn more about FRC, including asynchronous and digital work on things like programming the robot. Finally, there were many people involved in the presentation of the team’s impact and game design, which involved making a new FRC game. 

Although this season is unusual, the team has overcome obstacles, competed well, and learned more about robotics.