I did something I’d never done on May 16, attending a robotics competition.
But I wasn’t there as a reporter, I was there as a father.
My oldest son, Bryan Dombeck (10), was competing in his very first competition with First Gear Robotics out of Reedsville.
First Gear is made up of what I gathered to be elementary students in roughly fourth through sixth grade.
Before I stepped into the gym at Reedsville Elementary the only thing I knew about a robotics competition were there was likely to be robots, so I wasn’t exactly well versed on the subject.
I’d been in the same gym countless times over the past 15 years covering basketball and volleyball but this was the first time seeing one of my sons compete in, well, anything.
I didn’t need to know anything about robotics to know my son was interested and I was going to support him however I could.
And while the competition might have been certainly different than my usual fare, there were plenty of similarities too.
The teams competing at the scrimmage – I discovered it was a scrimmage over the course of the seven plus hours I was there – were from the same areas I cover for work.
Roncalli, Kiel, Sheboygan and Manitowoc all had teams participating with teams being comprised of elementary up to high school students.
There were referees and announcers, and rules which I still don’t fully understand, but I was at home in many aspects.
All the usual trappings of a school-sponsored sporting event were there down to concessions and fans/family in the stands.
During the competition, a match consisted of four robots with two teams joining in an alliance to compete against another two-team alliance.
The objective was to have the robots throw whiffle balls into a large upright container which had QR codes on it to help the robot see during the short autonomous period where the coding is as important as the building of the robot.
Next, the robot could be controlled by competitors using controllers and driven around to try and score points.
Once the match was over, the alliance with the most points won but each individual team was also scored.
Bryan was the human player, the one in charge of loading the whiffle balls into his teams robot. I at first thought maybe he’d be disappointed to not be controlling the robot, but he assured me his job was extremely important because if the robot didn’t have whiffle balls to throw the team couldn’t score as many points.
After 17 preliminary matches, the 13 teams were to be seeded into a 12-team playoff, and Bryan’s team was the lowest seed but an older team from Manitowoc volunteered to sit out that portion to allow the younger teams a chance.
Above all else I was struck by the excellent sportsmanship I witnessed among the teams.
It was a scrimmage, but the competition meant something to those competing. Later on, a younger competitor from Kiel won a sportsmanship award and hugged the teenage official who selected him like he’d just won a million dollars.
Bryan’s team made the championship round due to the third overall seed, Crash and Burn, picking his team for an alliance and the alliance winning their quarterfinal and semifinal matches.
This was also the part where I was most proud as a parent because Bryan didn’t actually compete in the playoffs. There could only be one player at his spot and he wasn’t as quick, so his alliance had someone else take his place.
Instead of being upset he told me plainly that he got to play in half of the matches anyway so why not give someone else a chance.
I always envisioned by sons competing in more traditional sports but those aren’t the ones they’ve enjoyed the most so far.
My attempt to take Bryan to a Milwaukee Brewers game resulted in him getting bored by the middle innings, but at least we tried.
As a parent you merely want your children to have fun and be happy in whatever they choose.
It was only one competition but robotics certainly seems like a worthwhile venture.
Contact Tom Dombeck at 920-686-2965 or tdombeck@htrnews.com. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, at @Tom_Dombeck.
This article originally appeared on Manitowoc Herald Times Reporter: What a robotics competition taught this sports reporter | Dombeck
Reporting by Tom Dombeck, Manitowoc Herald Times Reporter / Manitowoc Herald Times Reporter
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