John Bapst Robotics teams have been meeting actively, both online and in person when able, since the start of May. Team 2142E gathered on Zoom to plan and build their first robot with the new competition challenge (Change-up, a fast paced tic tac toe type of game).  By the start of the school year, Bapst had four active teams meeting up to four days each week.

In November, John Bapst teams participated in their first online skills competition where three of the school’s teams placed in the top eight in Maine. Following that, Team 2142D(Scorpion) and Team 2142E competed in another skills match remotely in New Mexico, where John Bapst went up against the then ranked top high school team in the U.S. (tied for first with a team in China for the world title).

Team 2142E then competed in a live remote tournament where four teams compete at the same time on four different fields involving teamwork and heavy strategy. John Bapst’s Flat Earth Society team was arguably the best team there, robot and drive team combined. They were knocked out during the Quarterfinals due to some technical glitches; this was a beta-test of the software that will be used later in the season.  Team 2142E has been invited back to additional tournaments of this type now that the software has ben improved.  The team struck the organizers as consummate professionals and veterans to VEX competition.

Since then, John Bapst has added David Mullens as the new Assistance Coach for the team, and he has been helping out with remote tournament management and practice supervision each week. Team 2142E has continued to compete in a skills tournament league every two weeks, and has managed to put up a 3rd place standing in all of New England.

John Bapst competes again in two weeks.