Ray Haslam works on building a robot for the KHS robotics team. The team members say robotics is fun and challenges them. (GAZETTE PHOTO / Madison King)

Robots. Programming. Wires and gears. That’s what the Kemmerer Junior Senior High School Robotics team, who just finished their season for this year at the state competition in Evanston, work with every day. So what does this talented team do, and why do they do it?

KHS robotics team members are Brayden Dearden, Collin Smith, Coy Taylor, Dakota Dunning, Jacob Rily, Joseph McRoberts, Matthew Garver, Michael Clarke, Ray Haslam, Shelby Swann, Thomas Archibald, Trenton Skidmore, Trytan Hays and Ty Hysel. To add to the team, is coach Arvid Aase and a few volunteers that helped to improve the students programming and engineering skills: Matt McRoberts, Nelson Smith, and Michael Archibald.

Kemmerer High School students Brayden Dearden, Trenton Skidmore, Matthew Garver, Coy Taylor, Joseph McRoberts and Ray Haslam compete at the Wyoming State Robotics Championship Match in Evanston in February. (COURTESY PHOTO / Arvid Aase)

Shelby Swann is the only girl on the Robotics team. Swann had a lot to say about what it’s like as the only girl on the team. 

“There are some downsides,” Swann said. “Otherwise, it’s really fun. I don’t mind being the only girl. It would be nice to have another with me but, it’s still fun to build a bot.”

Shelby Swann is a freshman at Kemmerer Junior Senior High School, so she has a long robotics career in front of her.

Kemmerer freshman Shelby Swann works on a robot, while Trenton Skidmore (back) works on programming. The KHS robotics team says robotics is fun and challenges them. (GAZETTE PHOTO / Madison King)

The coach and volunteers of this team are experts on the subject. One of the volunteers, Matt McRoberts, knows a little about the mechanics of robotics and in addition to his contributions, he gives financial assistance from the Exxon-Mobil  foundation with Nelson Smith.

“I’m happy to help,” McRoberts said. “I tell the kids how this or that works, and help with troubleshooting stuff.”

McRoberts also said that robotics is something he and his son, Joseph, can do together, especially in Joseph’s senior year of high school.

Arvid Aase, the coach of the robotics team, has been advising the team for the past three years. Coach Aase started this adventure because his two sons were in the sport, and since the original coach was leaving, Aase volunteered to take up the part. Then, as one son graduated, and the other decided to go a different path, Aase was tempted to leave the robotics team.

“Then I saw these other kids that wanted to participate,” Aase said. “Many others wanted to be in robotics, so I stayed. It gives these kids the chance to practice their abilities.”

This is a small team of tech-savvy students,  but the team has a wide variety of personalities and abilities that make them excellent at working together.

“What makes this team special? This is a very dedicated core group,” Aase said. “They complement each other.”

The students of this team do have different interests and so some of them have specific jobs to uphold.

Trenton Skidmore takes up the role as the autonomous programmer, working inside the robot itself. Coy Taylor has the privilege of being the main driver and a mechanic for the bots, many times driving the team to victory.

Joseph McRoberts, one of the few seniors on the team, is the lead programmer for the KHS robotics team. Joseph said he has enjoyed being a programmer and being part of the robotics team and says he has learned a lot in the time he’s been on the  team.

Brayden Dearden, Matthew Garver, Ray Haslam, Joseph McRoberts, Coy Taylor and Trenton Skidmore of the Kemmerer High School robotics team receive the Judges Award at the Wyoming State Robotics Tournament in Evanston in February. McRoberts is the lead programmer, Taylor is the main robot driver and Skidmore is the autonomous programmer for the team. (COURTESY PHOTO / Arvid Aase)

According to the students, robotics is more than just machinery.

“Robotics gives you skills in mechanics,” said Ray Haslam. “But we also need patience, and that’s hard to come by.” 

Swann agreed that robotics provides a variety of skills.

“It looks good on a college application, and we get to learn how to build things,” Swann said.

“Robotics gives us experiences such as leadership, engineering, mechanics, knowing how things work, time management, and organization,” McRoberts said. “It helps us work through our thoughts.”

This season of robotics has been quite a marathon for these students. The KHS team didn’t start out well at the beginning of the season, placing last at their first meet. Then, as the season progressed, so did the team.

Four times in a row, the Kemmerer Ranger Robotics team won second place, including at the state championship in Evanston. The team also earned two Judges Awards this season. The team didn’t qualify for the National competition, but they hope to next year.

The robotics team builds and programs their robots, then competes in a 12-foot by 12-foot arena at competitions. They form alliances with their own robots and robots from other teams to accomplish certain tasks. Places are determined not only on the challenge score but on the teams’ robot engineering as well. A new challenge is released every April to all the teams at the Vex Worlds competition in Louisville, Kentucky.

Teamwork, programming and working with all sorts of gears and gadgets — this is the heart and soul of the Kemmerer Ranger Robotics team. Why do they do it? For fun, for a challenge and for a chance to learn something new. These students have the brains to do great things.

Great job, Robotics! We’ll be rooting for you next season!