Iron Chargers earn their success

“They are an awesome group of young people that put in a lot of time. They have earned all their success,” says Robotics advisor, Isaac Kvasager.

Last Saturday was another successful day for the Iron Chargers. Going into the competition at Northland Community & Technical College in Thief River Falls, the team already knew they had their state spots so they weren’t too concerned about the outcome of the day; they just wanted to enjoy it.

Well, enjoyment AND success was the turnout. The Grygla robotics team were named tournament champions out of 50 teams competing in the event!

They started the tournament by volunteering their time to help set up for the event. They worked all day Friday setting up for Saturday’s tourney and it’s a huge undertaking. Mr. Kvasager says, “We are very fortunate to have Andrew Dahlen at NCTC who is willing to do all the hard work to organize and host these events in our area. It was his push 8 years ago that was a major factor in the growth of robotics for MN. Not to mention he is just one of the nicest people you will ever meet.”

The competition started last Saturday morning at 9am and ran all afternoon. The 4149C team won their first match and had a robot skills score of 104. That was the highest of the day and also ties them for 3rd highest in the state! In fact, they are ranked 99th in the WORLD out of over 10,000 VEX teams! Impressive, huh?

Both Grygla teams went undefeated at NCTC and allied for the finals. That alliance advanced them through the semi-finals and onto the tournament championship, which they won! The C team also won both the Robot Skills Champion award and the Excellence award.

Kvasager was actually running part of the competition and says he had almost no contact with the team all day. “I’m very proud of the fact that they can handle an entire tournament without me having to be there to guide them,” he offered.

The team has their official practices for 4 hours one night a week. But many of the students are at the school 2-3 nights a week for 2-4 hours each night. They are willing to put in the time to build, rebuild, test, repeat….over and over again. And that hard work is really paying off.