Grace High School Robotics Team Wins Design Award!

Grace School of Simi Valley competed in the first VEX Robotics Tournament of the ‘23-’24 season this past Saturday, October 28, in Tustin, CA along with 31 other High School teams from around Southern California.  Senior and Team Captain Ian Nelson, along with Sophomores Jacob Patton, Nickolas Villa, and Gavin Willis, clinched the Design Award at the competition! 

The Design Award recognizes an organized and professional approach to the engineering design process, project and time management, and team organization. The Design Award recognizes a team’s ability to document and explain their engineering design process via an engineering notebook and team interview. 

This year’s game is called “Over Under.” The VEX Robotics Competition “Over Under” game is played on a 12’x12’ field and features two alliances, red and blue, each with two teams.  Matches include a 15 second autonomous period and a 1:45 Driver Controlled period.  The objective is to outscore the opposing alliance by scoring triballs in goals and elevating at the match’s end.  Grace teams will compete in their next regional tournament on 11/18/2023. 

After the competition on Saturday, mentor and team Mom, Cecily Laurito, stated, “I’m very proud of how well our team has come together and their impressive teamwork, especially during the interview process. When they were called back for a second interview, I knew they were strong contenders for an award. The experience has given me the opportunity to understand our new members, identify their strengths and areas we can improve.  Gavin and Jake were assigned the role as coaches and they have quickly grasped the significance of their roles, acting as the eyes and ears for the Driver, Ian. It was exciting to see Gavin, who is also a builder, so enthusiastic in his first VRC Competition. This year, Jake Patton has stepped up as the head builder, and Nick has been excellent in leading the Pit Crew and Logbooking. Ian is the driver, strategist, Logbook Lead/Mentor, Programmer and CAD developer.  He will be teaching and mentoring the new members on CAD, programming, and Logbooking. Their individual contributions have been pivotal to our team’s success.”

The team would like to thank Jake Mittel for all his support and encouragement.  Mr. Mittel runs the thriving and successful Grace School Jr/Sr High Robotics program and is a Math and Physics teacher at the school. Everyone at Grace is proud of our fantastic robotics program, all of our teams and would like to congratulate team 986A for a strong start to the season.  Grace School has had at least one of its teams go to the World’s Competition for the past 13 years in a row, and most years sending more than one team. 

Interested in learning more about Grace Junior/Senior High School?  Join us for Campus Visit Day on Thursday, November 9!  Sign up on gracebrethrenschools.com/admissions and visit the events page.