Robowranglers ready to defend title

March 7, 2009
Herald-Banner

By Amber Pompa
Herald-Banner Staff

GREENVILLE -- The Greenville High School's nationally-acclaimed Robotics team, which beat squads from the U.S., along with seven other nations to bring home the world robotics title last year, is ready for battle once again.

Students and teachers from GHS, along with staff members from the two corporate sponsors -- Innovation First, Inc., and L-3 Communications -- make up the Robowranglers.  Each year volunteer engineers team up with students to build a robot to enter into the FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) robotics competition.

They usually spend six weeks on the project, with engineers mentoring students in brainstorming, prototyping, designing and the creation of the robot and its functions.  Students work with the engineers each evening to create and build various parts of the robot, enabling them to take classroom concepts from the math and science fields and apply them to a real world situation.

"We love our robot," said coach Johnny Tharp.  "It has some unique features and we feel it's going to be a high scoring robot."

Last May, the Robowranglers were members of a three-team alliance -- with squads from Sterling Heights, Mich. and St. Catharines, Ontario -- and took the FIRST World Championship in Atlanta, Ga.

"I think this year's team is poised to give a good accounting of itself," said Tharp.  "We're ready to defend our title, but we're also humble because we're all starting over from scratch as it's a brand new season.  We're ready for it, though."

The team is set to compete at the VEX Robotics Competition, hosted by Lovejoy High School in Lucas this Saturday, and on March 12-14 the Robowranglers -- Team 148 -- will kick off their 2009 competition season at the Dallas Regionals, held at Southern Methodist University.

The Dallas Regionals are the first of several competitions for the Robowranglers over the next few months.  After Dallas the team will be heading to Houston for the Lone Star Regional competition March 26-28, followed by the FIRST Championship Event in Atlanta, Ga., set for April 16-18.

This year's team includes students Rae Arnold, Jeff Bethel, Alex Cartier, Allison Chitwood, Michelle Colwell, Colin Doby, Elise Follett, Parker Francis, Cody Horton, Connor Horton, Katie Kroncke, J.C. Lawler, Mark Mahrer, Josh Matlack, Zack McClellen, Chris McMurray, Isaiah Pierce, Keri Porter, Adam Risley, Laura Risley, Dillon Row, James Russell, Chris Thompson, Charles Wensel, Trevor Wooten, Kaleb Wright and Amy Yznaga.

"This is the greatest group of students I've worked with in the 10 years I've been doing this," said John V-Neun, the lead engineer for the Robotics team.  "They're working harder than any group I've seen.  They really want to defend their title and are hungry for more."

The team is coached by GHS faculty member Johnny Tharp, with mentors Will Beene, Kevin Morris, Corey Chitwood, Vanessa Pope, Chris Follett, Adam Reppond, Jim Francis, Ken Stroud, John Hodapp, Ricky Torrance, Chris Horne, John V-Neun, Matt Mahrer, Casey Welch, Brandon Martus, Monty Wineinger, Steve Maxwell and John Yznaga.

For more information on the Robowranglers, visit the team's Web site at www.robowranglers.com.

Team148.org  |  Robowranglers.com