Robotics team members gather to take a photo after their big win—left to right: Lucas Deane, Brandon Griffin, Marcelo Torres, Taylor Trepagnier, Alex Stapp, James Bragg, Michael McGovern, Tyler Westfall, Hayes Martin, Garrison Trahant, Dylan Bracey, and Kyle White

On March 16, the Jesuit Robotics Team #6448 competed against 19 other teams from the Louisiana region winning high honors and 1st in competition at the Louisiana FIRST^® Tech Challenge (FTC) State Regional Championship hosted at Destrehan High School.

Each year the FTC issues a new game that the robotics teams will build and calibrate their robots to compete in. This year’s challenge is called “Rover Ruckus” featuring a space theme with craters, lander-craft, and element collecting. Each preliminary match consists of four randomly selected teams with two teams per alliance. Your partner for one match might be your opponent for the next. The goal of the game is to score as many points as possible through completing a set of tasks with your alliance partner. The first portion of the match is a 30-second autonomous period where teams can score only with pre-programmed instructions and sensor inputs. Following the autonomous period is a two-minute driver-controlled period where two team members operate the rover with a team coach directing them.

Jesuit’s robotic team was led by seniors Lucas Deane, James Bragg, and Alex Stapp who finished the preliminary qualification matches with a 5-0 record. This resulted in the Blue Jays advancing as the 1st place seed in the elimination bracket that afternoon. As alliance captain for the elimination rounds, Jesuit selected Team Dark Matter (#8956, Community Team, Mandeville) as their alliance partner and proceeded to score an exciting season-high 315 points in both rounds of the semi-finals match. The Jesuit/Dark Matter alliance would go on to win the semi-final round 2-0 and the finals round 2-0.

Not only did the Blue Jays see victory as the Winning Alliance Captain, but they were also awarded 1st-place in the Connect Award, 2nd-place in the Inspire Award and 3rd-place in the Rockwell Collins Innovate Award. They will now advance to the Houston FIRST^® World Championship to be held in Houston, Texas on April 17, 2019.