On March 2-3, more than 40 FIRST Robotics Competition teams from Mid-Michigan competed in a district competition at Kettering University, Flint.
Pat Major, team GHS Robotics coach for Teams 494 and 70, said students and mentors have been working seven days a week for the past six weeks to perfect, a robot, a winning game strategy, an autonomous program, driver skills, and judge’s packets.

“The challenging work paid off as Team 494 one of two high school robotics teams at Goodrich, was in and out of first place for a day and a half of qualifying matches,” said Major. “Goodrich seeded third, the number 1 seeded team was aware of the capabilities of Goodrich and selected them as their first pick.”
The alliance made it through the elimination rounds winning the quarter finals in two straight wins, the semi finals were also won in two, however in the final round with the number one alliance against the number two alliance it was a different story. The Goodrich alliance won the first match easily, the next match was lost when Goodrich’s alliance partner had mechanical problems and could not function fully. The third and final match would decide who was the best at the weekend event, added Major.
“All robots repaired and fully functional the alliance went out and played as they had played all weekend, they played their game and the other alliance could not keep up, victory went to the number one alliance Goodrich, Allendale, and Okemos (a rookie team competing for the first time ever in a competition).
Goodrich Team 494 also took home the Industrial Design Award sponsored by General Motors. Team 70 finished as quarter finalist at Kettering District 1 Event and won the Quality Award sponsored by the Motorola Solutions Foundation.
Kettering announced our scholarship winners that were in attendance and GHS student Justin Newberry, driver and programmer for the Martians was the recipient of a $25,000 scholarship.
“We had a great weekend that proved hard work reaps success, and that goes double for Justin” said Major
Team 494 will compete again in 2 weeks at the Lansing District Event and Team 70 will compete the week after at the Troy District. State Championship is in Saginaw April 12 -14.
The World Championship will come to Detroit this year filling Cobo Hall and spilling over into Ford Field for the final competitions, awards, and the closing ceremonies with 40,000 people from more than 25 countries on April 25- 28, historically the FIRST Championship has made a $30 million economic impact on its host city. FIRST is supported by over 200 of the Fortune 500 companies and offering more than $50 million in scholarships