FIRST Robotics District tournament held at BHS

By Mark Laginess
“Three, two, one, crescendo!” This phrase was heard at the start of each match this past Friday and Saturday, March 8 and 9, as Belleville High School welcomed 39 teams, including their own Bellevillians, as part of the 2024 First Robotics Competition (FRC).
The school has hosted five district robotics events since 2018, missing only the 2020 and 2021 seasons due to COVID restrictions. Teams came from as far away as Holly, Pontiac, Troy, Sterling Heights and New Haven to the north and from Adrian, Blissfield, Ottawa Lake, and Erie to the south to participate at BHS this year.
The Belleville event was one of six happening around the state of Michigan in Week 2 of the FRC season. Other locations included Escanaba, Flint, St. Joseph, Lake City, and Woodhaven. Three more weeks of district competition in Michigan are planned followed by the state competition at Saginaw Valley State University from April 4 to 6 and the world championships in Houston from April 17 to 20. In 2024, Michigan will host 27 FIRST Robotics events including the state finals, more than any other geographic region in the country or, for that matter, the world.
As with past Belleville events, the teams showed high energy and great enthusiasm. While the event is a competition, FIRST Robotics expects teams to interact with “Gracious Professionalism” and “Co-opertition,” terms which reflect a spirit of cooperation and respect while competing.
Those characteristics were certainly on display throughout the matches between the three-team alliances, and many examples were also found in the pit area where teams prepare and repair their robots before and between matches, especially where the more experienced teams helped the rookie teams in attendance.
With 39 teams, 78 qualification matches were conducted to give each team the chance to play in 12 different matches. During a match, three teams form an alliance against three other teams, and the alliances change throughout the qualification round such that teams might find an alliance partner in one match to be an alliance opponent in the next. Teams scout other teams throughout the event to assess which ones are best at the various aspects of the game, an important factor in alliance selections for the playoff rounds.
At the end of the qualification matches, which were played on Friday and the first half of Saturday, the host Team 6615, the Bellevillians, found themselves with the highest overall ranking, meaning that they would get to choose first in the alliance selections for the playoff matches.
In the playoffs, alliances do not change, so selection of partners is important and depends heavily on the scouting reports done during qualification matches. The Bellevillians chose Team 1481, The Riveters from Farmington, as their first selection, and Team 94, The TechnoJays from Southfield, as their other alliance partner. Ironically, the TechnoJays represent Southfield A&T, the school Belleville played for the state football championship in 2023.
The alliance of Teams 6615 / 1481 / 94 lost its first match in the double-elimination playoffs, meaning they needed to work their way through the losers bracket to compete for the finals. After winning their next two matches, they lost to the alliance of Teams 8373, 51, and 6538 from Blissfield, Pontiac, and Ypsilanti who emerged from the losers bracket and went on to defeat the alliance of Teams 3707, 8179, and 226 from Brighton, Dearborn, and Troy in a best two-of-three showdown, claiming the district title.
The Bellevillians performance was the best-ever in qualification matches since the team was formed in the 2016-17 school year, and it represented the first time that the team was an alliance captain. The Bellevillians also received the Imagery Award which recognized the team’s on-field persona including tall black top hats and black suits. While not carrying their qualification round success into the playoffs in this event on their home turf, the Belleville team does have one district win in its history, that coming in the 2018 event at St. Joseph.
The Bellevillians are coached by BHS teachers Aaron Lang, Aaron Watkins, and Kaylee Haisma. The team will next compete at the district event at Ann Arbor Skyline High School on Saturday and Sunday, March 16 and 17.