Four years ago, Wahlert introduced the FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) Robotics Club.

Mr. Bob Oberfoell, science teacher, became the first faculty supervisor when the club began, and Mr. Tyler Decker, math teacher, agreed to help out three years ago when he came to Wahlert.

“Students design and build a robot that can compete in a given game each year,” Mr. Decker said. “The game changes, and the robots have to meet the new requirements.”

This year, the event is called “Velocity Vortex.”  The robot is required to push and launch small balls into baskets in the middle of an arena.

Currently, Wahlert has two teams, designated by the numbers 9025 and 7400. The students in team 9025 are Chris Wuertzer, Cody Hartig and Grant Oberfoell, ‘17; Emily Gehling, Sam Gilligan, Jarrett Tranel and Jayne Munshower, ‘18; Lizzy Fitzsimmons, Gabe Wigginton and Mary Freund, ‘19; and Sara Freund and Veronica Skinner, ‘20.

Team 7400 is composed of Ben Koch, Nick Moran and Josh Nuti, ‘17; Andrew Timmerman, Evan Schultheis and Luke O’Connell, ‘19; and Tyler Powers, Sam Pregler, Daniel Reich and Noah Stran, ‘20.

Moran originally joined because of his interest in engineering. “I wanted to try it out,” said Moran. “It’s fun to design and compete with something you created and see others’ robots.”

Freund has just joined the club and is hoping for a similar experience.

“I did lego league and the summer camp and really liked it,” she said.

Freund is one of six girls involved with robotics at Wahlert, and she said she hopes to see more girls join in the future.

“Not a lot of girls are introduced to it,” Freund said.“The more it is presented, however, the more they might like it.”

This year FTC competitions will be held from mid-February to mid-March.