The High School Robot Wars Was A Sight To Be Seen
Adam and I were running the show by turning the robots on and off as well as keeping score and setting the field markers for each round. We were there for long hours having to set up at 7:00 am every day before the start of the matches at 8:00. We also stayed late to help clean the arena and pack up for the next day. It was 12 to 14 hours a day of hard work and fun!
	Most of the time Adam was running the power controller which let us kill the power to any robot on the field at any time. The rules do not allow a robot to damage the playing field or any other robot. If something got out of control it was our job to shut them down. Now and then a robot would start to climb right out of the arena. A friend of ours was working as a referee. His son, Ricky, was there and he helped us run the controls. Ricky was a big help and gave us a chance to run out for short breaks. He especially liked starting the time clock and entering the scores. We had to be quick and accurate because everything we did got put up on the giant overhead displays.
My job for most of the competition was to enter scores and start the time clock. We would switch off now and then but when things were picking up pace we settled into our jobs and stayed put. At one point, we went out for a lunch break and something went wrong. When I tried to start the first match after break the program kept giving a loud "Wee Wow" over the loud speaker system. After a few unsuccessful tries the entire place was looking at us to get things going. It only took a few minuted to reset the system but the pressure was on. After that, Adam said he didn't want to run the clock anymore.
The "Mad Cow" was my favorite (picture on left) because of the unique drive system. The robot would shuffle along on a set of walkers that were very original. They did have a problem being top heavy and got knocked over a bunch of times. In the end, it was machines that could push and shove and not stack that were the best competitors. The winning team was from Max Hayes School and was one of the many NASA sponsored robots at the match. Our old team from East Tech took the Regional Chairman's Award and will go on to the Nationals in Houston, Texas.
We were glad to do the field operations again for the 2nd year in a row. We made some new friends and were well received by the folks from FIRST who did a fantastic job setting up and running the event. We pulled things off when the pressure was on! I'm sure we'll be at it again next year...

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