Calumet CopperBots bring home the gold

CALUMET — A Keweenaw robotics team is celebrating a recent victory and have been named State Champions of the FIRST Robotics Competition. The Calumet CopperBots have claimed the state title and have brought home the blue banner from the state championship.

The team is made up of seven members, mostly freshmen. That’s right, this team is made up of a group of kids that many are participating in robotics for their first year.

“We’re a little team in the U.P., so we didn’t expect to get as far as we got, of course,” said Tajah Davise, a member of the CopperBots championship team.

So how did this group of underdogs claim the state title?

“This year was really a learning year and to thin that we actually made the state championships in a learning year is such a testament to how hard these guys worked,” said CopperBots coach Todd Waurio. Waurio said that his team may be small, but the group of innovative thinkers can accomplish just about anything.

“They brought in their own skill set, but I think that just what they’ve learned throughout this show season and this short year truly amazed everybody. I’m just blown away with what they’ve really put together,” he added.

The team amazed itself with the series of wins leading up to the state title. Davise, a junior, said that the CopperBots had to step it up when an allied team announced their machine was unable to perform properly.

“They had an air leak so they couldn’t work as well as they did in the first finals match. Right before the match, our alliance captain looked at me and said ‘Our robot is broken.’ I’m like ‘Well, okay, this match isn’t going to go to hot,’ but we all made up for it in the next two,” said Davise.

With that handicap, a win seemed out of the question, and although the team performed surprisingly well, Davise said she was reluctant to look at the scoreboard for verification.

“Did we just win that match? I was so surprised and we just locked arms and we just started jumping up and down and we won the state championship. We’re going to WORLD’s, and its pretty amazing honestly,” she added.

“We won the division and we went on to win. The whole tournament which secured us a spot at the WORLD Competition in Detroit, and I think we’re ready for it,” said Zander Worm, another member of the CopperBots championship team.

The WORLDS Competition takes place next weekend. The Copperbots will be leaving for that event in the middle of next week.