Utica Community Schools Crevolution Robotics Team to Compete at Nationals

Members of the Utica Community Schools ‘Crevolution’ FIRST robotics team are scheduled to travel to St. Louis Wednesday with a flying disk throwing robot and a mission to honor a mentor.

The team, comprised of 17 students from Utica High School, Utica Academy for International Studies, Henry Ford II High School and Stevenson High School, will be competing in the national FIRST Robotics championship tournament April 24-27.

Their robot, named A-MAYS-ing Discobolus, was built to shoot discs into goals, climb up a tower and pick up discs, as part of the robotics competition.

While their journey to this point was technically challenging, the team also had to deal with the unexpected death of one of their mentors Mays Overton. The 27-year-old had assisted the team for five years, and died on March 10 in the midst of qualification matches.

The team continued to compete, and qualified for nationals. 

"It was an emotional moment. We were very excited to win in (Mays Overton) honor," said Brian Bataglia, physics teacher at Utica Academy for International Studies. "This season is in memory of him."

In addition to dedicating the season to Overton, their robot was renamed in his honor by calling it "A-MAYS-ing Discoblus." The first name incorporates his name, and the last name refers to the ancient Greek sculpture that depicts a discus thrower.

Mentor George Chene added in a release that the students took to heart something Overton said, “Life only happens once. You can wallow in the bad times or you can move on and find the adventure around the next corner.”

Follow the team on Twitter at twitter.com/crevolution2851.

According to the district, other Utica Community School robotics teams to excel include:

• The ThunderChickens high school team has been invited to the world FIRST tournament after winning the state tournament. 
• A team from Utica Center for Science and Industry was selected for the VEX Robotics world tournament. 
• A ombined UCS junior high/elementary LEGO Robotics team will participate in the LEGO competition’s world finals also in St. Louis.