Bellarmine robotics teams competed in two separate VEX tournaments over the weekend – the RoboVikes Gateway competition held in Fairfield, CA, and the Pan-Pacific VEX Robotics Championships in Honolulu, HI. Two teams qualified for the world championships as a result of their tournament performances.

Three Bellarmine teams competed in the RoboVikes tournament held in Fairfield on Saturday, December 3rd. Each of those teams reached the semi-finals, where Team 254E came out victorious against Team 254A and continued on to win the tournament. Team 254E, led by Chris Correa and Jonathon Chang, also won the prestigious “Robot Skills Challenge Award” and the “Think Award”, which is presented to a team that has successfully utilized autonomous programming modes during competition.

Bellarmine entered two teams, Team 254B and Team 254D, at the Pan-Pacific tournament held in Honolulu, December 1st – 3rd. Over 100 teams from across the US, China and Taiwan competed, where Team 254B made it to the tournament finals, thereby securing their slot for the world championships.

Over the past thirteen years, Team 254, “The Cheesy Poofs,” has grown from one of the smallest programs in the country, at a struggling high school, to a large, multifaceted organization. In 1998, NASA engineers Bob Holmes and Steve Kyramarios joined Jason Morella, then an English teacher and now with the Robotics Education and Competition Foundation, in exciting students about robotics. With the downsizing of Broadway High School, the program was given a new home at Bellarmine College Preparatory in the fall of 2000. Since then, the team has won the coveted FIRST Chairman’s Award, the FIRST Championship, the VEX Championship Excellence Award and numerous tournaments.

Much more important than any competitive successes or awards, the students of Team 254 have grown academically, intellectually, and socially. Team 254 members gain a better understanding, a greater respect, and a more profound appreciation of the benefits of a good education. Much like NASA and Bellarmine College Preparatory, FIRST and VEX are organizations which, in a profound way, inspire and motivate our students to avidly pursue their academic, career, and personal goals.