The Robotics team finished its robot late after school on Tuesday, Feb. 23 for the upcoming competition.

The Kansas City regionals are set for March 11 and 12, the championship for the competition is the weekend of April 30. During the weekends, between March 11 and April 30, there will be robotics competitions all around the world.

De Soto High School senior Rhett Pierce, one of the co-captains of the combined Mill Valley and DHS team, has high hopes for the outcome of this year’s competition.

“This is probably one of the most [successful years], all of our years have been very successful,” Pierce said. “This is definitely a very well-built, well-designed robot, and, if we get a few of our bugs worked out, then I believe it can be very competitive in this game.”

In her first year on the team, senior Felicia White reasoned that the six weeks spent building the robot for the competition was beneficial.

“[It’s] better than all the other years, from what I’ve noticed,” White said. “My friends are less stressed, I’m less stressed. We seem to be semi-on schedule.”

But, to Pierce, the build season seemed to go a lot slower than what was originally intended.

“We didn’t get quite as much as we wanted done,” Pierce said. “We are not quite to the point we want to be for competition, but we’re really close. This year, compared to last year, was a lot more successful, definitely.”

The most challenging aspect about this particular season for Pierce was the overwhelming amount of team members.

“It was very difficult organizing so many kids, because we have 60 kids on the team, and we were good and successful for finding a job for everyone and everyone got to participate, but it was definitely very difficult organizing those kids,” Pierce said. “It’s awesome to see the team grow, though.”

While White found herself crunched for time during the build season, she decided that it would not let her stop it her from giving Robotics a shot.

“My favorite thing was probably just being around people that enjoy doing something that I actually enjoy,” White said. “Being productive. Finally discovering my calling, what I want to do, senior year.”