Main photo: Hoya Robotics team members (front from left) Ashley Stetler, Will Zammit, Evin Park, Wilson Trenholm; (middle from left) Will Tempest (holding banner), Ella Watson, Sophia Webster; (back from left) David Sinton, Dave Topps, Ethan McKee, Jaccob West, John Ebbers, and Sam Topps are excited to bring home the provincial championship banner. Missing from photo: Avalon Martin-McTavish, Braedan Collier, Dominic Langowski, Jackson McDonald, Jackson MacDougall, Jacob Hill, Maimie Ferris, Marc Baquial, Matthew Velasco, and Sylvie Berg. (supplied)
Huntsville High School’s Hoya Robotics is bringing home the winners’ banner from provincial competition for the first time in the club’s 10-year history.
The team attended the 2022 FIRST Ontario Provincial Championship from Thursday, April 14 to Saturday, April 16 in Mississauga.
The experience was a rollercoaster for the Hoyas. The team went into the competition ranked in the top 20 in the province. The first day went incredibly well and they were ranked as high as sixth. But on Friday, they ran into some obstacles and fell to 36th place.
Luckily, in FIRST robotics competitions teams compete in groups of three called alliances. After the preliminary rounds, the top eight teams take turns choosing who they want in their playoff alliances. Number one alliance captain OP Robotics (team 2056) from Stoney Creek picked Simbiotics (team 1114) from St. Catharines and the Huntsville team (team 4152), and the rest is history.
The alliance was dominant in both the quarterfinals and semifinals, winning each best-of-three series in two consecutive games and tallying a tournament-high score along the way. In the finals, the alliance had to play a tiebreaker match but ultimately came out ahead.
Huntsville High School teacher, Ian McTavish, who started the team in 2012, couldn’t be with his students at the championships because he was home in COVID isolation, but he video-chatted with the team throughout the competition. “They’ve been tremendous. It’s such a high-stress environment…they are motivated and want to do well. They know they’re on a highly competitive team and they delivered.”
Although the win earns the team a berth in the world championships, they’ve had to decline the opportunity as it would have meant driving to Texas today.
“Our goal now is to get things in place because we plan to qualify for Texas next year and we want to ensure we have enough funding to go,” says McTavish.
The road to victory
“This year the team was amazing,” says McTavish, noting that they weren’t able to meet in person for the first three weeks of robot design in January due to COVID. “Because of our experience running our TechnoGirls program, students were able to design a lot of the robot at home.”
They built on past experience and accomplishments to get up to speed quickly.
“We failed faster,” says McTavish, adding that practice space provided by Trinity United Church in the weeks leading up to competition was instrumental in their preparation. “We found out what would go wrong and what would break and we fixed it ahead of time so that when we got to provincials a lot of those issues were already dealt with.”
The team has won an award at every event that they’ve been at over the past five years. This year, they won the industrial design award at Nipissing University, and a safety award at York University. “We know that we are designing excellent robots and we’re starting to see our ranking that much higher with competition,” says McTavish.
At the provincial competition, team 2056—which has won more events than any of the other teams, worldwide—noticed how well the Hoyas’ robot climbed. It was part of what prompted them to select Huntsville to join their alliance for the final rounds.
“In the quarterfinals, semifinals, and finals, we were the only team that hung from the top bar every single time,” notes McTavish.
“The team is on cloud nine,” he adds. “We played with literally the best teams in the world. In the finals, five of the teams had won world championships before, and then there was us.”
Hoya Robotics has a bright future ahead.
“Our drive team learned quite a few tricks from 1114 and 2056, so there’s some things we’re going to start doing now that will just make us that much better,” says McTavish. “The biggest thing is that the kids are incredibly motivated.”
With several young team members to carry that knowledge forward, the Hoyas will be able to build even better in the future. The drive team, led by team captain Will Tempest, has three grade nines on it, notes McTavish—Ella Watson, Sophia Webster, and Jaccob West—and one of the robot designers, Avalon Martin-McTavish, is also in grade nine. “We just have this strength this year of grade nine students that will be around for years to come.”
The team was accompanied to the championships by teachers Kirsten Otis and Wes Palmer, as well as pit crew boss Dave Topps and drive team coach Sam Topps. “[Dave and Sam] are one of the reasons that we do so well. Dave is with Kimberly-Clark, one of our sponsors, and he and Sam have just done a tremendous job with training and our program has really developed thanks to them. Nancy Topps unfortunately couldn’t be there but she’s in charge of our safety program and our safety captain won an award at York University for that.”
Sponsors make the team possible, notes McTavish. “We really appreciate all of our sponsors… We’re going to find a way to celebrate and thank them because our program wouldn’t exist without them.”
Don’t miss out on Doppler!
Sign up here to receive our email digest with links to our most recent stories.
Local news in your inbox so you don’t miss anything!
Click here to support local news
Anna Bertelsen says
Just want to congratulate the Hoyas..well done, we are all so proud of you.
Sandy McLennan says
“The biggest thing is that the kids are incredibly motivated.”
Big congratulations to this team. I saw that robot climb and it gave me a huge smile seeing it work and knowing the kids made this sophisticated machine from their own thinking, learning, dedication and labour.
Ian McTavish is a treasure in this town. He kindly and calmly provides a great many self-motivating opportunities that would not otherwise exist. Young people and our society are the better for them.
Bill Beatty says
Well done Will. Robotic Bagpipes next ? Start saving for a stetson now.
Great work Kids !
Meg Jordan says
Very excited to see the team doing so well–with so many you’re members who will be with them for several years to come. Fantastic!!
Gord Mitchell says
Congratulations Huntsville Hoyas – simply wonderful in your provincial win!!!!! You join the many other Huntsville teams that have won provincial championships. It’s great to see that you were excellent in your skills of ball pick – up and scoring; defending your otter teammates and being great climbers in the end that earned you those high and winning points. It was so much fun to watch – we were all sitting on the edges of our seated- cheering you on !!!!! You did huntsville proud!!