Shrewsbury Pioneer Robotics Team Co-Champions at States
On March 5th at Andover High School, the Saint John’s High School Robotics Team, FTC #12589, sponsored by Coghlin Companies Inc., won the 2022-2023 Massachusetts FIRST Tech Challenge State Championship. Out of all 36 teams present at States, they were the first team to be picked to join an Alliance by the then- #1 ranked team. They triumphed in the Finals with a 4-1 record and the highest score of the entire competition, which, at the time, ranked them 13th place out of the world’s 6,000+ FTC teams.
In addition to being State Co-Champions, the team received multiple recognitions including the Motivate and Gracious Professionalism awards. In their January and February qualifying tournaments, the Pioneers earned an Inspire Award, the highest honor that can be earned, plus a Design Award.
“The Pioneers had a slow start at building this year’s robot. It took some weeks to get our act together as a team. But once they won the January qualifier’s Inspire Award for their leadership in STEM education, they wanted their robot to reflect their excellence as STEM leader in our community. Our builders and programmers stepped up and put in enormous hours, including over 40 team lab hours during the February break. They are a perfect example of the axiom that hard work pays rich dividends. It has been an honor to witness their commitment to the many challenges at hand,” says Dr. Edward Tonelli '82.
The Pioneer Robotics are more motivated than ever. They did not advance to the World Championship this year. Yet, they are focusing on improving their robot for several post-season competitions this year and strengthening their team to come back stronger next year.
