CHS robotics team wins all-star award

COEUR d'ALENE - They surprised themselves by bringing home the Rookie All-Star Award earlier this month from the Northwest regional FIRST Robotics competition in Portland.

Now members of the new Coeur d'Alene High School Teraviks robotics team are scrambling to raise the $25,000 it will take for them to travel to Atlanta next month to compete in the FIRST Tech Challenge World Championship.

"We worked really hard to win the rookie award, but there were 11 rookie teams, a few that were really good," said Zach Harvest, 18. "Our mentors kept telling us, 'Don't get too excited,' so it was pretty awesome to win."

The CHS team that just formed this school year placed 10th out of 61 teams that competed.

But after the high-fives, cheers and screams of joy died down, Harvest says: "Reality set in."

Young team members have been feverishly making phone calls, sending letters and visiting businesses seeking sponsorship donations so they can reach their goal.

They are almost 30 percent of the way there, having raised about $7,000 of the $25,000 needed. The cost to ship the 120-pound robot is nearly $2,000 alone.

Being crunched for time while seeking creative solutions goes with the territory when it comes to FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) robotics competitions.

The national competition officially begins in January each year when each team receives a box of parts and a challenge: Build a robot designed to complete a competitive task, and do it in six weeks.

"That's an incredible amount to do, to manage a project, in a short period of time," said Teraviks co-captain Ronnie Ross, 18.

For information on how to help the CHS team, visit their Web site, www.teraviks.com, or call 691-7371.

Post Falls High School's team, in its second year, also was in Portland and plans to compete in Atlanta at the world championship competition.

Teacher Sal Lorenzen, adviser for the Post Falls team, Roboteknix, said adult mentors who work with the kids and sponsors who help pay the teams' way make it all possible. Mike Everett and Ken Lambie from Kimball Office, Chris Moler from Bay Shore Systems and local electrical engineer David Freiberger have played a big role in the Post Falls team's success, Lorenzen said.

"That's a big part of this, that contact between industry and school," he said.

Being a little older team and because they performed well at two regional competitions last year, the Post Falls robot techs have been raising funds and seeking donations throughout the school year. For information, that team's Web address is www.roboteknix.com.

The North Idaho Discovery Association and LCF Enterprises in Post Falls are also big supporters and contributors to most of the robotics teams in the region.

"Without that I think we'd all kind of be sunk," Lorenzen said.

Lake City High School's Cyberwolves robotics team, also in its second year, competed in a regional competition in Phoenix earlier this month, making it to the semi-finals. A team from Timberlake High School went to Phoenix also.

"The programs from this area did very well," said Lake City robotics coach Eric Edmonds.