Written By The Suffolk Times

NORTH FORK, NY - As the bus pulled up to Southold High School Saturday night, parents were clapping and cheering their returning heroes: The Southold robotics team has won a ticket to the 2016 FIRST Robotics World Championship.

According to Christine Schade, co-advisor along with Bob Gammon, Southold's Team RICE 870 competed Saturday in the School Business Partners of Long Island semi-finals event at Hofstra University, where they placed second.

The team was the runner up but won the Engineering Inspiration Award, which means "we have won our way to nationals" in St. Louis, she said. The team's registration will be paid for through NASA.

On Saturday, the team competed against 51 teams from across Long Island, as well as against a team from Brazil.

The road to Saturday's success has been paved with hard work and diligence. The team also competed at the Buckeye Regional event in Cleveland, Ohio on March 18 and 19, where they qualified 24th, made it to the playoffs, and finished eighth.

Team Rice's robot is named Killer Rabbit, due to a mechanism on the front shaped like bunny ears, an idea suggested by Ed Chilton, a mentor who also owns Beachwood Sand and Gravel.

This year's competition, Schade said, was based upon a medieval them where the team had to capture the opponents in a castle and the robot had to breach defenses to get to the castle.

According to Schade, the team learned what the task would be for this year's game on January 9 at Stony Brook and then had six weeks to design and build their robot.

"It's countless hours," she said, adding that the team met after school from 2:45 p.m. until 10 or 11 p.m. at night and on weekends.

This year, the Southold team has 34 members, with 24 kids competing Saturday.

Schade thanked the community, the school administration, the board of education, mentors, and area sponsors, such as Miller Environmental and other businesses, for working together to support the students. "We wouldn't be here without them," she said.

She, co-advisor Bob Gammon, and the mentors are "incredibly proud of this group of kids," Schade said.

The drive team, along with a scout team, that helps find the other two teams with which to form an "alliance", all work diligently and use strategies to forge partnerships, she said.

The competition is based on science and engineering and helps instill lifetime skills, Schade said. "This is a sport for the mind," she said. "This program is amazing."

For the students, the chance to head to finals is cause for jubilation. "I'm pretty excited," said Jake McCarthy. "I love robotics and everyone in robotics. I think it's a great program. I have a lot of fun there."

The robot, he said, specialized in breaking down defenses, such as scaling rock walls and shooting balls in the top of the tower.

"I'm ecstatic," added student Joe Saporita.

Co-advisor Gammon said the win demonstrated a lesson he strives to instill in students: "E = R," he said. "Effort equals results."

By Lisa Finn

April 2, 2016