The robotics team is set to compete at the First Tech Challenge Robotics Competition at Wylie East High School on Saturday, Jan. 14. This qualifying tournament will determine which teams will advance to the North Texas Regional Competition.

“The competition involves a drive to the location, setup and maintenance of the robot [and] then inspection and judging of the robot,” sophomore robotics member Connor Mihelic said. “Then we get to take the robot to the field and start to compete.”

The team participating on Saturday created the name “EFFoRT,” which stands for Excellent Fighting Farmers Robotics Team.

“We have spent every week for the past few months of this school year prototyping and testing numerous different robot chassis’ and codes so that we may have the best robot we have ever built,” Mihelic said. “Some of us have even sacrificed our well deserved breaks from school trying to perfect the robot.”

Just like any other extracurricular activities, the robotics club members put countless hours into preparing for this tournament, many of those being outside of school hours. Every Tuesday and Thursday the team meets after school around 4 p.m., due to the fact that many of their members are freshmen and sophomores. They also have meetings on the weekends to bond as a team and further develop their robots.

“It truly is a major passion project for me and for the rest of the team,” senior robotics president Sean Sparks said. “We are a family that bonds of a similar interest and the love of trying to win.”

Although he doesn’t have much experience with robotics, physics teacher and robotics coordinator David Pribich is excited to expand his knowledge and learn new skills along with the team.

“I love science and math, and this is a way to apply those skills in a tangible way,” Pribich said. “It’s good clean fun.”