Pope John sending two teams to robot championships

Sparta — When a robotics team from Pope John XXIII High School won the New York City Championships on March 13, they became the second team this year from Pope John to qualify to compete in the FIRST Robotics World Championships in Atlanta, April 14 through 17. Pope John’s Team 247 won all 10 of their matches at Jacob Javits Convention Center this month to take first place in a field of 47 teams. The New York City championship event was the largest state level tournament ever held, with teams from New York, New Jersey, and even from as far away as Jamaica. Just one month before, at the New Jersey Championships on Feb. 7, another Pope John team (Team 248) had qualified for the World Championships. Each of Pope John’s teams consists of 10 students. This is the third season Pope John had fielded an FTC Robotics team. Last year, one of two Pope John teams qualified for the World Championships in Atlanta, and finished 8th in their division of 50 teams. How they do it Each season begins with new games and the teams must design and build robots specifically to compete in those games. This year’s game, Hot Shot!, requires the robots to harvest wiffle balls off the arena floor and shoot them into various goals. The Pope John teams used sensors that allow the robots to find the goal and score points even without a student driver. In addition to competition, Pope John has demonstrated its robots at the Sussex Fairgrounds Boy Scout Jamboree, hosted a grade school robotics tournament at the school, demonstrated robotics at Sparta Day festivities and at Liberty Science Center.