This article was originally published in The Examiner on Dec. 21, 2017.
By Eleanor Skelton
Staff Writer
The Silsbee High School’s GOLD! robotics team competed in the Pasadena ISD VEX In the Zone tournament at the Lewis Career and Technical High School and emerged as tournament champions from a field of 40 teams on Saturday, Dec. 9.
“This win advances the team to the VEX Robotics state championship tournament in February,” Silsbee ISD spokesperson Daniel Elizondo said in a news release.
This year is Silsbee High School’s second year competing in VEX Robotics, which is an international competition that ends each year with a world championship representing over 40 different countries worldwide.
“The VEX game changes from year to year,” Silsbee High School’s technology teacher Vic Miller said. “This year, students were tasked with building robots that can quickly build tall stacks of cones and move them around the field, over obstacles, and into scoring zones without tipping them over.”
Silsbee High Schools’ GOLD!’s robot emerged as one of the tournament’s top performers. Going into the finals, GOLD! partnered with The Immortals from Texas City, whose robot was also scoring some of the tallest cones stacks on Saturday. Their alliance was able to post the highest scores of the tournament and best all other competitors down the stretch.
Silsbee High School’s GOLD! robotics team is led by team captains John Eason and Jaiden Johnson, and coached by Vic Miller, who is currently in his 20th year of coaching competitive engineering teams. Other team members include Leila Windham, Nick Allen, Josh Flowers, Kyler Macon, and Deacon Swope.
Eleanor Skelton 