The Scalawags competed in Girls Gen at Wilsonville October 7th, going in Clawdia’s arm was inoperable due to some bugs we have been yet to fix. Despite this setback our drive team were up to the challenge, ending up one of the top 4 teams after qualifiers. Our drive team didn’t stop there, getting all the way to the finals with the alliance we chose as the rest of the team cheered them on as loud as they could. In the second round of finals Clawdia took a hit and was taken out of commission for that and the next round, after this the Scalawags were unable to take first place. The drive team got the Scalawags to a second place trophy despite how much of a handicap was placed onto Clawdia without her arm, and everything we as a team learned will be essential in building next years robot.
Our projected 2024 budget is $29,000, with this thermometer graphic showing our progress to fundraise that amount. Throughout the summer the team has been hard at work at fundraisers and community outreach events to raise this money before 2024 kickoffs. We have been doing car washes, fairs, talking to possible sponsors and working with some amazing people with this goal in mind.
This past March 2-4th, went up to Clackamas for a riveting competition! We struggled to get our sea legs out from under us and effectively move field pieces. Yet in typical Scalawag Spirit we cheered on ourselves and others, and received the Spirit Award! We learned and grew (and danced the YMCA a lot), and are currently working on improving our original design to bring to the Salem Competition this coming March 23-25th!
Thank you to our sponsors for charging us up!1359’s President working hard to ensure our robot is ready for the match.Our drive team working together to problem solve on the field!Our technician showing some love to the Scalawags cheering them on from the stands!
The Team has been hard at work building a robot this season. As of right now, our new flagship has its frame, arm our grabber. Right no built our main obstacles are programming portion, and jamming all of our components in our small frame. The scalawags might make history by giving our programmers a working prototype before scrimmage in Corvallis.
The team discussing ways to use the space on the robot.
On Martin Luther king jr. day, the Scalawags continued the annual tradition of going around the high school and cleaning up trash. We have been making an effort to be more sustainable from seasons past, by using then washing, cups, plates, and cutlery.
We have been away from the website updates for too long! Needless to say, we’ve been busy. Over the summer, the team ran car washes, can drives, and concessions on our local train line to bring in funds for the 2023 season. We also added many new members to our rank – including two new mentors! (Well, they’ve been lurking as parents for a while, but now they HAVE to hang out with us!) The team was also honored to be chosen as the Grand Marshal for the Twilight Holiday Parade here in Lebanon. Creating a 30 foot float with moving skeletons on vacation was a great way to build skills for our new members. Winning the Santa’s Choice award was icing on the cake!
Our Holiday parade float took the theme of Christmas Vacation and turned it into the Scalawags Ski Resort! Book your vacation now!
The biggest news, of course, is our 2023 Build Season! We received our new challenge this past Saturday, and the team has been hard at work brainstorming ever since. If you missed the reveal, you can check out the game here . Charged Up is going to be a fast game with an unbalanced ending!
Kick off and Brainstorming for a fantastic new game!
We have some fun things to update you on. We have got our swerve drive built and are in the process of getting it put into a frame. We will be practicing with it when we finish the frame and coding so our drive team can gain experience with it. We have NEW members. Our team is up to 22 members now which is super exciting. We have done some fundraisers recently like car washes in the Lebanon High School parking lot and sold popcorn on the Santiam Excursion Train. We went to the Art and Air Festival in Albany with SWARM (957) which was a lot of fun. We were happy that we got invited to go with them. THANKS SWARM !
In June, the Scalawags opened the doors of their shop to the community and prospective crew members. We were thrilled to have a good showing – including to alumni who dropped in to see what we’ve been up to! It was extra special to see those who have moved from the team to the “real world” talking with students thinking of joining us.
While our guests milled around and talked to everyone, we were still working on our swerve drive construction, writing code for that drive, and driving our 2022 ‘bot, Amelia. If you missed the open house, but would like to see what we’re all about, stop in and see us some time. We work most Wednesdays from 6:30 – 8 in our shop in the 700s building at the back of the LHS campus.
If you haven’t heard already, the Scalawags are kind of a big deal! We had an incredible journey at our most recent competition in Salem! The robot was solid and the drive team was consistent, but bad luck in alliance partners seemed to plague us. We went into alliance selection ranked 26th our of 28 teams.
However, Third Alliance Captain Team 7034 (TBD out of West Linn) and their partner 4488 (Shockwave) saw something in us and asked us to join them. Together, we crushed the competition – even after a shredded belt had us repairing as we wheeled to the field – and came out on top! Our third ever winners’ banner! Don’t be fooled by the photos of the drive team after the final match – those are tears of joy!
In addition, the team picked up a spirit award. The combination of these awards, plus our imagery award and role as Eighth Alliance Captain in Wilsonville propelled us to District Championship in Cheney, WA this week.
The team has been hard at work, repairing Amelia, preparing some new imagery, and practicing slurping and shooting balls. We leave Wednesday morning and could not be more excited! If you would like to cheer us on, matches start Thursday, April 7th at 4! You can catch the live stream here.
The team is off to competition again tomorrow! We will be competing in Salem at the State Fairgrounds. You can watch the live stream at http://www.firstwa.org. Matches start Friday at 2 and continue Saturday morning! Hold good thoughts for Amelia, the drive team, pit crew, and spirit team!
Last weekend, the Scalawags competed in a full tournament for the first time since March of 2019. It was exhausting, exhilarating, and the most fun anyone here has had in a long time! The team took a robot they had barely finished (less than 30 minutes of drive time before we left) and turned in some great results. They were out in the quarterfinals, but had scraped their way to captains of the 8th seeded alliance.
Amelia E. Flowers (named for the pilot Amelia Earhart and FIRST founder Woodie Flowers) is a lean, mean, ball shooting machine. She weighs only 95#, but she’s all muscle and grace. Our drive team got comfortable with her quickly and found that she shoots well, and she climbs every time they ask her to. Like any event, there were challenges – broken brackets, controller connection issues, and complete exhaustion – but the team pulled together and supported one another in amazing fashion. Most of the crew had never been to competition before; they figured it out quickly, and made their mentors proud.
In addition to their fine showing on the field, the team was thrilled to receive an Imagery Award. Rapid React was a tricky game to tie to our pirate theme, but the art team really focused on the idea of transportation and moving cargo. They made custom safety vests with our logo, and created a logo for their very own shipping company: FedX marks the spot. The pit was filled with custom cargo and our signature skeleton, Slim.
Our 2022 debut has left us in good shape to qualify for the District Championship in Cheney, WA. Already this week, crew members have been out talking to local sponsors, asking for pledged funds, should we earn a spot in the top 50 teams. If you are interested in helping the team get to Cheney, please contact us at frcteam1359@gmail.com
