A Return To Worlds In Store For Sock Monkeys
The Oskaloosa Robotics Club the ‘Sock Monkeys’ have secured their second consecutive trip to Worlds.
Oskaloosa, Iowa – A bus rounds the corner to deposit the team at the Oskaloosa High School cafeteria entrance. Just around the corner from the cafeteria is the team’s ‘locker room’ of sorts.
The team isn’t a traditional sports team, but they function the same. They are a team of diverse individuals, who each bring skills to the game that make a difference.
No one ran for a touchdown, but they did help their robot achieve the team goals.
Molly Bleything is part of her team’s media relations. She talked about the process the team took in order to qualify for Worlds.
There were qualification matches that needed to be finished, and after those were completed, alliance selection happened.
Alliance selection is an interesting aspect in robotics competition. A team you may be competing against at one point, may be your ally in the future. The trick is knowing how to keep your weaknesses a secret, even to your allies, while trying to win a competition.
So the Sock Monkeys, part of the ‘Tinker Division’ partnered up with two other teams. Team ‘Dark Matter’ and ‘Combustible Lemons’ were the team’s chosen allies. “It’s pretty cool because we’re all from Iowa,” says Bleything. “So we’ll all being going to Worlds together.”
For the Sock Monkeys, this is two years in a row going to Worlds. “We’re pretty excited,” said Bleything of the accomplishment.
Steve Dixon is one of two coaches for the Sock Monkeys. “It’s awesome that the kids got it done,” says Dixon of the accomplishment. “I just try to show them the way, and send them on their way.”
“These tournaments are the easy part for me,” says Dixon. “I just sit back and watch the kids. They do it all.”
The next step for the team is “mad fundraising” as Dixon puts it. The team has to raise the funds to help cover hotels and other expenses the team will incur while at Worlds in St. Louis this April 22-25. The competition will be held in Union Station.
For now, the team will “freshen up the robot”, making some improvements to help them in the next round.
For those not aware, this isn’t the same robot as last year. Each year, the team is given a new task to achieve, and so the design process kicks off early in the season. “It’s accomplishments. It’s not battle-bots or anything like that,” explained Dixon.
“They give us a set of tasks in a time-limit and you try to get as many of those tasks done for points,” explained Dixon.
The robot has to initially start out within an 18 inch cube, and can then unfold. “We’re actually almost reaching 5 feet in the air to dump balls in a high-goal. The robot also needs to manipulate rolling goals and traverse ramps.
Joyce Eveland is an Oskaloosa High School teacher and is the person who “got this whole thing started 6 years ago”.
“Extremely excited,” says Eveland on the teams success so far.
“It’s very rare to go two years in a row,” Eveland says of the team’s back-to-back trips to Worlds. “We are extremely blessed.”
“It is going to be difficult for us because of the amount of money that it’s going to take for us to go,” says Eveland. “The community blessed us last year, and we are hoping they do it again.”
last year the team lost one member to graduation, and this year will see three members graduate, but Eveland says that she sees the older students helping to guide their underclassmen. “They know they have to transfer that knowledge, because neither Steve nor I have that knowledge. The kids do, and they take it very seriously to transfer the knowledge they have to the younger members so that it can continue and be successful.”
If you would like to donate to the students to help offset the cost of their upcoming trip, you can mail a check to the Oskaloosa High School and put c/o Joyce Eveland on the address. “It is tax deductible,” says Eveland, “and it does go directly to the robotics club.”
