BY WENDI REARDON PRICE
Clarkston News Staff Writer
The Team RUSH 27 Robotics team cheered and hugged each other on the gymnasium floor at Troy High School on Saturday at the Troy District Tournament as it was announced they won the blue banner – the third for the team this season.
“Winning the third tournament is surreal,” said Coach Kyle Hughes. “With 26 years of coaching, this win really solidifies that all the people are in the right place on the team, and we are all moving in the same direction. We are moving forward with an expectation of excellence. It means so much to have come out of COVID and really be on top of our game, especially since every tournament is like the first one … trying to remember what we would do at this point. We are now three years out since States and Worlds and it is overwhelming to remember everything.”
Team RUSH was seeded first with a ranking of 10-1-1 after the qualifying rounds.
They picked Team No. 67 HOT (Heroes of Tomorrow) from Milford and Team No. 4384 Benzene Bots from Troy for the playoff. The 3-team alliance won the tournament and Team RUSH finished with a final record of 16-2-1 overall for the tournaments. They finished as regional winners and received the Excellence in Engineering Award, which celebrates the team that demonstrates a professional approach to the design process, and whose design is elegant and advantageous on the field of play.
The award judges stated, “This team quickly advanced their technology during COVID down time to develop a precision drive system. Their high goal shooting consistency and dedication to elegant design allowed them to climb to the top. This team can be described as ROBUST, UNIFIED, SKILLFUL, HARDWORKING. This is their TOOLKIT FOR SUCCESS. Congratulations to Team RUSH No. 27.”
“The tournament was way more exciting than we had desired,” Hughes shared. “With the first match of the quarter finals in elimination rounds, our partner got a yellow card for driving up on a robot during competition – that was a warning. They had a good few more matches.
“Then, in the finals, we won the first match, were way ahead in the second match to win the tournament and our partner got their second yellow card, which resulted in a red card and a score of zero. We had to play the third match, winning with a score of 150-87, with 150 being the high score of the tournament.”

Team RUSH hit a few bumps with robot issues which were diagnosed quickly.
“One was a black rod that crosses the robot to assist in climbing at the end had a few scratches on it and our limelight camera was being reflected off of the black rod’s scratches,” Hughes said. “It messed up our shots all over the field. We had to resort back to other shots during the match. After the match the pit crew resolve the issue. It is little things like that that make us crazy, but it was so exciting to get it figured out quickly as well. We also had a few other small issues, but I believe we have the best problem solvers in FIRST, and as we would come off the field, we would tell the pit crew what was wrong and they would fix the robot while the drive team would do analysis on our past match, while prepping with the data for the next match. It was an amazing cycle of information, problem solving and competing.”
Hughes added some highlights from the competition included the data the team compiled during the scouting process.
“These kids sit in the stands for hours watching robots and recording the data from the matches,” she said. “This data all goes into an enormous database, which then tells me what I am up against in the next match. It gives me information like the expected score, who would play defense on us and which team we want to slow down. The data really is amazing and the team has done an incredible job at giving me this information.”
Team RUSH 27 is 48-4-2 in official play for the 2022 season and are tied for second place in Michigan.
“We are not done,” Hughes said. “We have to work hard. I tell them not to get complacent. We have a job to do and we aren’t done.”
Senior Captain John Mueller agreed, adding “we have three banners. We cannot let that get to our heads. We have a lot of work to do and need to stay focused.”
Hughes added there is still a lot to do as they get ready for the Michigan State Championship at Saginaw Valley State University, April 13-16, and FIRST World Championship in Houston, Texas, April 20-23.
“The most difficult thing right now is getting our pit to the world championships three days after the state championship,” Hughes said. “This is quite a journey for all of us, especially on a bus. If there is anyone out there that would be willing to drive our pit supplies to Houston, Texas, please contact me at khhughes@clarkston.k12.mi.us.”
Read more about Team RUSH in next week’s edition of The Clarkston News. Follow the team on Facebook and Twitter.
Please visit, https://www.thebluealliance.com/team/27 for more information on the team data and www.teamrush27.net for more information on Team RUSH 27.

  Team RUSH 27