March 18th

Due to popular demand, I am posting the epic that my dad wrote about our robotics team.

 

Ode to TNT

We drove to St. Cloud for a kit of parts, then we scratched our heads and said, “Where do we start?”

A scissor lift, an arm, a claw, we’ll stun the crowd with a sense of awe.

We drove to Minneapolis to get us some steel, while Nik kept us all on an even keel.

While Danny kept the home fires burning, we all settled down for some techno-learning.

Then Allen came over all dressed in black,we all would exclaim, “What’s the plan of attack?”

We all used the drill press, the saw, and the hammer; while Andrew stepped in as our needed programmer.

With hammers and saws and drills all a-sounding, Karl kept us going with ideas abounding.

Then Chris would stay over and sleep on a cot, his mom would come get him and bring Minibot.

Then off to Simley for initial rounds, for drivers to practice and shake it down.

To view the competitors was our greatest gift, but we wowed them all with our scissor lift.

As we strove to honor Jack Kamen posthumously, Andrew tried to scare the crowd autonomously.

Then we packed it up and said goodbye, “See you in Duluth,” was our parting cry.

We got to Duluth and unpacked our parts, now it’s time for the games to start.

We did fairly well in the initial rounds, but trouble was brewing as we soon found.

We needed a Jaguar, a bolt, and a key; would this be the end of little TNT?

But we made the repairs quickly with the help of some friends, then back to the floor to compete again.

We finished the day with a fairly high seeding, some great alliance partners is what we’ll be needing.

Then came the choosing to fill up the quota, we joined up with Simley and then North Dakota.

We clashed with the others, tried to fill up the racks, we switched to defense to fend off attacks.

We went to the semifinals then it became clear, we won’t go to nationals, this would not be our year.

Then as we prepared for the games to end, we met Herobotics, our new best friends.

They cheered us all up, we had met for a reason, what a great way to end an outstanding rookie season.

 

Build On,

Team 3840