BY WENDI REARDON PRICE
Clarkston News Staff Writer
Team RUSH 27 kicked off their season with their first tournament in Duluth, Minnesota.
“RUSH students did an outstanding job with what we needed to do -drive team, pit crew, scouting, strategy, judges and more,” said Kyle Hughes, coach of the Clarkston High School robotics team.
Team 27 was Rank 34 with a record of 8-7-0 and won awards in Regional Finalists and Entrepreneurship Award sponsored by Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers.
They also had a the high score during the tournament with 425 points. They averaged 150 during the weekend.
“It was an amazing match,” said Hughes. “It was a great weekend with many opportunities to learn more and ultimately our ability to focus and execute.”
She added they had a lot of robot troubles and were seeded No. 35, but they were fortunately picked by the No. 4 seed team.
“Our job was to play defense and climb the rope at the end, of which we were very successful,” she said. “In fact, the round we got 425, RUSH didn’t let any of our opponents come in and get the gears they needed. The clincher was in the very last match, our rope broke and the robot dropped around five feet, costing us 50 points and we lost by 20.”
Team RUSH held a mini showcase before heading into their first competition, Feb. 24.
During the showcase they introduced people to different subgroups within the team and the responsibilities they have.
Each subgroup also shared what they did before the competitive season began, cons and pros they encountered; and lessons they learned.

Students and family members were able to view the show Team RUSH created with lasers for the first year.
The audience was introduced to this year’s robot as well as seeing what the students will be doing for this year’s competition.
“It was to open the opportunity for the student in the building to come down and check it out,” said Hughes, adding engineering students and CSMTech students also attended. “Since our showcase was during the mid-winter break, we heard people mention that they missed it. We went ahead and did another mini. We had 30-plus people in attendance.”
Team RUSH invites you to their next tournament held March 17 and 18 at Waterford Mott High School and help them make everyone feel like Clarkston is the home team in Waterford.
For more information, please visit www.teamrush27.net or www.thebluealliance.com.

  Team RUSH 27