PHOENIX — The Phoenix Coding Academy is used to the science and technology of robotics, but they don't have a lot of confidence going into a robotics competition in Los Angeles.
They were hoping to at least do better than last year’s team that came in last place.
“The bar was very low. We were hoping for second to last minimum, have a good time and compete well,” said Amira Olivas, a senior at the Phoenix Coding Academy.
When the team got to the competition, their confidence didn’t improve and they felt outmatched.
“We’re fighting for this workshop and borrowing parts,” according to Javier Osornio, a junior. “The California teams have a lot of funding, lots of tech sponsors but it's hard for us. We’re still struggling to get sponsors to help us get to the competitions.”
During the qualifiers, which is team versus team, Phoenix Coding placed 13th out of 44 teams. They performed well enough to bolster their confidence in their team. However, it wasn’t well enough to be selected by another team to move on.
“So, when they're choosing their alliances and their teams, we were hoping to get chosen,” said Osornio. “But we didn't get chosen. So, we all had sad faces going to eat lunch.”
However, when they returned from lunch and went back to the competition, the number one team had a mishap. The team from California’s robot broke down and couldn’t move. That gave Phoenix Coding an opportunity to be subbed in and continue in the competition.
“We had to prepare instantly. We were like alright, we have no room for error,” explained Olivas. “We have to pick it up and we have to go in. There was a lot of anxiety.”
Phoenix Coding used that anxiety, letting it fuel them on the field, and ended up winning the entire competition.
“We were really proud of ourselves because we didn’t do so well at last year's competition. But I felt like this year we did a lot better,” an excited Orsonio explained.
They know this win will play a huge role in helping build their futures.
“Some of us have been doing this competition for a handful of years now and some are just starting this year,” according to Olivas. “Each year, you're like, we're just building to build but then you get to the competitions. When you compete you really feel that inspiration like, wow, this is so much bigger and you want to continue doing more in that field.”
