The Sonic Squirrels Are Back

The+Sonic+Squirrels+at+a+competition.

Cabe Cartier

The Sonic Squirrels at a competition.

Cabe Cartier, Staff Writer

The Sonic Squirrels are a stellar group. Last year, they took home the 6th place award from Nationals in Houston Texas. After an excellent performance from the previous year, Mr. Hayashi and his team are working extremely hard to repeat their success.  They put in hundreds of hours throughout the year to design their robots for spring competition.  On the off season, the team is meeting once a week, reflecting on the past and planning for the future.

Crunch time comes sooner than they think every year when they find themselves at the school until 9pm five days a week.  The amount of time spent on these projects is paid off for when it comes to competition day.  The 14 hour competition is a well spent day full of fun, and some times the Sonic Squirrels walk away with an award.  This year they have increased our team size with some additional students from Snohomish High School.  With over 40 members of the Sonic Squirrels, some great ideas and modifications are being made to make this year’s robot.

Many creations and replicas are made in order to make the final product for competition.  This year their robot will be playing FIRST Power Up where the robots will be moving power up boxes to offset the balance beam in their favor.  After doing so, it will allow the robot to climb the tower and eventually defeat the boss. The team already has set goals to accomplish.

With the competitions coming up, the team will be around a lot after school hours.  Thousands of hours are put into these robots from schools all around the area, which makes for a great afternoon of robots battling for the throne.

“The environment at a robotics event is one of a kind, it looks great, sounds great, and smells great! You wouldn’t want to miss it,” Mr. Hayashi said.

Come support our Sonic Squirrels March 24 and 25 in the Glacier Peak Commons.