SPORTS WRAP
In a matter of a few short weeks, the Owatonna Rebel Alliance assembled a robot. Not to fight off the dark side, but to pick up foam balls and throw them into a hopper. This is the task for high school robotics.
Junior Bradyn Jamaica says, “It’s a dense foam ball, which we’re using our robot this year to hopefully pick it up off the ground. Then compress it in our rollers and shoot it out.”
As a programmer, he is one of the drivers. “Last year was more my introductory year to it at regionals. Overall, it’s a lot of fun, but there is a lot of stress when it comes down to it. When you’re in these massive arenas, people are watching down. It’s you, two other teams against three others.”
Like Jamaica, junior Cade Shinabarger is in his third year. “The team is like a family. We all come together. We brainstorm ideas. It’s really just a team overcoming a challenge.”
Shinabarger leads the build team. “I consider this thing my baby. We do a lot of the CAD (computer-aided design) work and a lot of the prototyping. The shooter prototype that we were talking about earlier, I helped mock that up.”
When we spoke in late January, advisor Nathele Beadell stated, “We’re prototyping all the shooters and the intake and everything else. They’ve been designing and working to see what works and what doesn’t.”
The season opened March 4-7 in Duluth where Owatonna won the Imagery Award. Beadell says tying their team logo in with their red and black color scheme into their powder coating contributed to the recognition.
“It celebrates excellence in engineering aesthetics, requiring the team’s theme to be consistently applied across robots, uniforms, and pit displays. The award fosters team branding and visual appearance,” she stated.
The team was forced into rebuilding their shooter by printing 3D parts to get the robot back in working order and onto the competition field. Their next event is April 1-4 in Kansas City.
Jamaica says teams work together against other cooperatives. “Another concept that’s heavily emphasized while competing with other teams, is cooperation, learning how to cooperate with both your teammates, and your opposing team. And yes, we all like to win. We want to win.”
Teams go through qualifying rounds to determine rankings and set up allegiances.
Shinabarger says competition day is a chance to network. “It’s a big arena filled with literally thousands of people. It’s exciting. When you meet those other teams, you also learn about their culture…A Chinese team gave us a New Year’s gift bag.”
His interest in robotics dates back a long ways. “Ever since I was little, pulling things apart, putting them back together… Robotics is really unique. You don’t entirely know what it is going into it. But once you get into it, it’s really something. I basically live here. I love this place.”
Beadell says students don’t need a technology background. “We have a lot of students that just come. They’ve seen the robot. They like to play with robots. Who doesn’t like to play with robots? They don’t know programming or they don’t know electrical. We train them. We teach them. That’s what we’re here for is to teach them.”
The high school team consists of 33 students. They share space at the district service center with the middle school and elementary programs, creating a mentorship-type model in robotics.
Verdict is in
OHS mock trial placed 12th at the state competition March 5-6 with seniors Eric Zhang and Ayoub Farah earning all-state honors.
Advisor Robb Winterfeld says the students were extremely dedicated. “The preparation, the professionalism. Watching them compete and seeing how much further ahead they’re going to be in higher education or in life. Going through that process. It’s really pretty extensive,” he said.
“They did a wonderful job preparing. To make it to state, you’re a top 16 team in the state. That’s impressive… Those seniors did a nice job of continuing to lay that foundation for our up and coming sophomores, juniors, seniors for next year,” said Winterfeld.
Zhang told Owatonna Live, “The community that we build. After working with so many people for such a long time, and working the same material, you develop very strong connections with the people you work with. We often have practices and we’ll do scrimmages We’ll go out, we’ll eat victory dinner after we win. It’s really nice to get to know the type of people who join mock trial.”
Sound of Musicals
While attending this Saturday’s Owatonna Figure Skating Club’s annual show, “Sound of Musicals,” it should be fun to identify which musicals the songs come from.
Senior Teegan Embury came up with the theme, influenced by being in high school theater. “The music is so good and there’s so much variety that I thought it would be really fun to put into a show,” said Embury.
She spent many hours last spring and summer listening to entire soundtracks and came up with music from Grease, Annie, Mamma Mia, High School Musical, and even The SpongeBob Musical among others.
Club director and coach Jennifer Anderson told Owatonna Live, “our seniors get to showcase what they’re doing as they do a lot of the planning. It’s a great theme this year.”
As a junior coach, Syndey Willaert appreciates the full-circle moment of remembering when she was one of the young skaters. “We get to choreograph our own routine for the group that we work with and that’s really exciting to be able to watch… I like to see their progress and be a part of their progress,” she said.
Nora Griswold adds, “I like working with the tiny kids. I like how they act. It just reminds me of when me and my sister were kindergarten age.”
She’s especially excited for a trio she and her friends will perform to a song from Grease. Tickets are $10 for “Sound of Musicals” and are available through the club’s website and at the door at the Four Seasons Centre in Owatonna on Saturday, March 14 at 2 p.m.
Griswold started skating in first grade. “I did not actually want to do it at first. (My mom) took me out to Morehouse [Park] and I skated on the river for the first time, and I said, ‘Oh my gosh, I love this.’”
Embury began skating at age four and has completed a skills development program through U.S. Figure Skating. “I’ve passed all eight tests in that test track and I’m the first gold medalist in Owatonna. A lot of blood, sweat, and tears went into that.”
Speaking of gold medals, Anderson says the Olympics will likely add some interest for the club. “We’ll probably see numbers go up this spring as the Olympics were phenomenal this year,” she said.
Willaert found inspiration from watching the Olympics when she was younger. “I saw them doing the cool jumps and spins and the pretty, sparkly dresses and that’s all I wanted to do. It’s the push to want to do the things that I see the older girls doing. Skating is one of those sports where it takes a long time to develop the skills that you see on the TV.”
Anderson says there’s an increased interest in the adult learn-to-skate program. “It’s anybody age 13 and up. Some of them are just wanting to learn how to skate. Some parents are coming in from hockey kids that want to learn to skate with their hockey kid.
“We also have some skaters that are wanting to look at doing competitive skating. The adult circuit in competitive skating is actually growing as well.” New sessions start in April.
Blades eliminated
Steele County Blades junior hockey saw their season end over the weekend after a two-game playoff sweep by the Minnesota Blue Ox. Steele County was shut out on Friday 3-0, getting outshot 41-21.
Saturday, the Blades struck first on a goal from Liam Devlin but needed a late third period goal from Maxime Vernier to tie the game at 2-2 and force overtime. The Blue Ox scored the game-winner for a 3-2 final.
