The Flying Dutchbots are headed to states!

The Flying Dutchbots, ready for state-level competition in December! Photo courtesy of Andy Galicki

submitted by Andy Galicki

This weekend, the middle-school robotics team, The Flying Dutchbots, traveled to Battle Creek to compete in their first tournament of the 2023 season!

After a long day of presenting to judges and qualification matches, the Dutchbots were able to enter into alliance selection as the first-ranked team overall! Along with their alliance partners, 11228 | The OverClucked Bots from Cityside Middle School and 9499 | Destrobots from Otsego, they were able to make it to the finals where the alliance was unfortunately defeated.

Although they weren’t able to come away with the win, The Flying Dutchbots were the recipients of the Control Award (special shout-outs to Natasha Seaman and Carl Casey, who have spent countless hours working on the programming aspects of this year’s robot).

Finally, the team was able to secure their spot at states! This is the sixth consecutive season that The Flying Dutchbots have qualified to compete in the FTC state championship!

The Flying Dutchbots would like to say thank you to all of their students, parents, mentors, and especially our sponsors. Without each and every one of you, none of this would be possible!

The team will be competing the weekend of December 2–3 in the Michigan South Central League Tournament at Mason High School (where they will be fighting to win their third consecutive league title!) as well as December 15–17 at Parker Middle School in Howell for the FTC state championship!

Natasha Seaman and Carl Casey, robot designers.

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by Marsha Chartrand

Marsha Johnson Chartrand, a founder, writer, and copy editor with the Manchester Mirror, is a 50-year resident of Manchester. She has a long history of volunteer and community involvement.