Hermantown Robotics Team Reflects on Trip to World’s Championship

HOUSTON, Texas — The Hermantown robotics team recently returned from their trip to Houston, Texas and the Robotics World’s Championship.  During the competition they had several ups and downs including cables getting unplugged and parts failures as a result of collisions. At one point they even got some Northland love from fellow world’s competitors Denfeld who assisted them with a repair. After the event, there was the long bus ride home for team to relax and contemplate the experience.

“I thought it was a really awesome experience, seeing all these teams from around different places in the United States, around the world, many different countries.  Seeing how so many people found a solution to the same problem.”

“Really it was just fun to interact with people and meet new friends that I would possibly see them next year or any other time.”

“The scale of everything.  The building, those eight courts and all those thousands and thousands of people. It’s just really, it makes you feel small, but also like you have big impact on what’s happening. And I don’t know. It’s just really cool to see how many people get into sport and enjoy it, enjoy it as much as I do.”

“It was fun, but a lot of stress. I wish we could have placed a little higher than we ended up doing.”

But the trip wasn’t all about the competition. After their final match and a stressful competition, they found a local place to eat and have some fun.  For some of the students it ended up being the highlight of the whole trip.

“Food was great. I don’t think I’ve ever really had authentic Texas barbeque before, so that was fun to watch, or eat. And I, I, I mean, probably one of the favorite moments I’ve ever had with the team was there. We danced a little bit.”

“The barbeque place hands down. Seeing everybody dance on the team. That was a surreal experience. That was probably, hands down, my favorite part of the entire trip.”

“I really liked it when we went out to go eat, like, the barbeque after the tournament match. And like, everyone really got along and went like dancing and stuff.”

Their head coach comes home with some observations on what it will take to compete again in next year’s World’s Championship.

“I learned from this tournament that it is absolutely about initiative and follow through, that these kids have the will to do it, and if they can follow through on it they can make it all the way to worlds. It’s not about which team has the smartest kids, or the best programmers, or the most money, or the fanciest machine shops. It’s about which teams have the kids with the most desire to do it and the willingness to follow up all the way until they get there,” said head coach Liesa Klyn.

They are not done yet this year with the state competition happening next weekend.  The Hermantown Talons 5232 Robotics team thanks the whole community for supporting them on their journey. Fox 21 also congratulates the Denfeld and Babbitt robotics teams for reaching the World’s Championship.