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East Allegheny Robotics Team Wins Western Pa. Regional

East Allegheny Robotics Team Wins First Western Pa. Regional; Advances to Western Pa. State Championship

 

NORTH VERSAILLES, Pa.; January 28, 2025 – The East Allegheny School District’s Robotics team recently won the Penn Trafford Western Pa. State Qualifier Tournament for the first time to earn an automatic berth in the state tournament.

 

The squad, comprised of 13 students in grades 7-12, won the regional competition at Penn Trafford High School. The Wildcats had been Western Pa. Tournament finalists the past two years. The team has just one senior, Reily Fenters, and includes 7th and 8th grade students competing up at the high school level.

 

East Allegheny will have its final competition of the regular season on January 31 at Keystone Oaks High School and will then prepare for the Western Pennsylvania VRC State Championship, March 3 at Clarion University.

 

The EA subteam that has qualified for the state competition at Clarion is comprised of:

9th grade student Coen Miller (3rd year on team), 10th grade student Mason Osterritter (1st year on the team) and Fenters (1st year on the team).

 

Two additional East Allegheny subteams could qualify for the state meet via Skills challenges -- Driver Skills and Programming skills – but all the qualifiers won’t be determined until mid-February due to other competitions over the next three weeks. The combined score from a team’s best run is ranked and the top 40 teams (approximately) from the western half of Pennsylvania will go to the Western Pa. State Championship. (Pennsylvania is divided into Western and Eastern state championships).

 

The EA team has been charged with designing and building a robot and determining the coding so the robot can move to scoop plastic rings and carefully place the rings on a stake for this year’s game, High Stakes. Each match is two minutes, with the initial 15 seconds autonomous (program controlled). The students can then use a remote to direct the movements and actions of the robot the rest of the match. There are a variety of ways to score points during the autonomous and driver controlled periods.

 

East Allegheny teachers Mrs. Holly Spallone and Ms. Marcie Sippey are sponsors of EA’s STEM Club and the Robotics team’s primary coaches. Spallone is the district Technology Coach, grade 7-12 Science Department Head and teaches AP Environmental Science. Sippey teaches Math in the high school, including Honors Algebra and Calculus, and is the 7-12 Math Department Head. Teachers Kathy Chenot and Josh Miller joined the team as coaches this year. 

 

The Robotics team generally meets once a week after school starting in August to begin preparing for competitions. The team has recently been meeting twice a week to also practice for Seaperch (partnered with Bettis) competitions. In October and November, the team will meet 3-4 times per week in order to have the robots built and programmed prior to the first VEX competition.

 

Spallone said EA’s Robotics Team began in 2018-2019 and was aligned with BotsIQ, earning the BotsIQ Rookie of the Year. In 2019-2020, the Wildcats were prepared for a late season competition during the week in March when the United States essentially shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic. East Allegheny switched to VEX competitions at the start of the 2021-22 school year and qualified two subteams for the Western State Championship but was unable to travel after the Pittsburgh area received 10-plus inches of snow the night before the competition. During the 2023-24 school year, the squad grew from two to three subteams.

 

Since making the change to VEX competitions, East Allegheny has qualified at least two subteams every year for the Western Pennsylvania VRC State Championship. The subteam that won the State Qualifier Tournament (designated team 13756A) is likely to qualify for the State Skills competition as well, Spallone added.

 

“We are proud of all of the accomplishments and hard work of the Robotics team,” Spallone said. “It has been great watching the growth of the students and the team over the years.”

 

The Robotics team was recognized by the East Allegheny School Board at its January meeting and demonstrated the robots they built for the Board and meeting attendees.

 

At East Allegheny’s STEM Night on Thursday, April 10, attendees will have an opportunity to drive one of the team’s robots and visit with the students about their designs. The Robotics squad also has participated in some community outreach events, including Community Day, Robotics day at a Pittsburgh Pirates game and Mars New Year’s, where the students ate breakfast with some NASA astronauts before the event.