This past Saturday, Fezzik was throwing boulders around Boynton Middle School in preparation for his next challenge: destroying enemies’ neighboring castles.
Fezzik may be named after the giant made popular by the movie “The Princess Bride,” but he stands no more than two and a half feet tall. He also is not made of flesh and bone: Fezzik is a competition robot created by the Monadnock 4-H Robotics club.
“This robot has been built with a lot of trial and error,” said Alex Eggers, a senior at Mascenic High School. “We built the robot so it can do almost any of the tasks it has to do, plus it can score low goals and pass through the obstacles efficiently.”
The Monadnock 4-H Robotics club, also known as FRC Team 1729 or “Team Inconceivable,” mixes Mascenic, ConVal, and homeschooled students together to create an annual robotics project to compete at the FIRST Robotics Competition.
Although the team has existed for eight years, according to team mentor Bridgid Wood, this is the first year the team will make it to the District Championship in Hartford, Connecticut. The championship runs from April 13-16 and winners will advance to the World Championship in St. Louis, Missouri at the end of April.
“The whole team is excited to head down to Connecticut on Wednesday,” said Wood, after finding out over the weekend that her team will definitely be advancing to the District Championship.
This year’s competition is called the FIRST Stronghold, which is described by FIRST as “a Quest to breach their opponents’ fortification, weaken their towers with boulders, and capture their tower.” Using their robot, each team navigates through a 27 foot by 54 foot field full of obstacles to grab foam balls to deposit them in a low or high goal.
Points are scored by going over obstacles multiple times, scoring in the low or high goal, and capturing the opponents tower at either end of the field. Each match is two minutes and 30 seconds long and features three on three matches.
“Every year has a unique challenge that we have to complete,” said Eggers, who said last year’s robot had to stack totes.
One of the more interesting portions of this year’s competition is that teams are having to work together in alliances of three, forcing more cross-team work than ever before. While the competitions are still fierce, there is also an element of what is termed “gracious professionalism.”
“Other teams will call out for a part or advice over the loudspeaker and teams will jump at the chance to help,” said mentor Chris Maino, who was a member of the club from 2008-10. “You always want to try to help other teams out, because you never know who you will be allied with.”
ConVal ninth grader Cambra Wozmak said that helping other teams is great, but there is nothing better than the “family” she has developed through the robotics club.
“When I first came two years ago, I thought that people would call me stupid, but everyone has been so welcoming,” said Wozmak. “Some of the people in this group are closer than brothers and sisters. We quote “The Princess Bride” all the time. It’s a really fun time and I’d encourage anyone to join.”