PHOTO COURTESY OF UHS
Umatilla’s “Team Confidential” will compete at the Autodesk Pacific Northwest FIRST Robotics Competition Championship on April 9-12.
The team received its invitation on Sunday, after receiving the Chairman’s Award at a district event in Ellensburg, Wash., over the weekend. The Chairman’s Award is the most prestigious honor awarded by FIRST and represents the team that “best represents a model for other teams to emulate and best embodies the purpose and goals of FIRST.” The Chairman’s award involves an essay, interview and video. The judges take into consideration a team’s impact on the community and other students.
“It’s an amazing honor and the students are thrilled to have won it in their third year as a team,” Umatilla School District Superintendent Heidi Sipe said. “The community support for the team has been incredible, and the Chairman’s award honors the partnerships. It’s a win for us all.”
During this weekend’s competition at Central Washington University, Team Confidential placed eighth in the qualifying matches. In the semifinals, the team won twice – and twice had the wins reversed by the referees during final calculations. The reversals pushed the team into ninth place and out of the finals.
With the points from Ellensburg added to their first-place finish in the district competition in Spokane, Team Confidential sits in 10th place out of 153 teams in the Pacific Northwest. The regional championships beginning April 9 will determine if they will move on to the world championships for the second year in a row.
Want to read Team Confidential’s essay? Click here.
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