Four recent Bellefontaine High School graduates who are part of the Vex College Robotics Team FOAB (Fearless of all Bots) recently competed at the Kalahari Classic Signature Event in Sandusky.
Team FOAB won all eight of their matches. They also competed in the Skills part of the competition and got the highest skills scores out of all of the teams and went on to win the final round of the tournament.
Team FOAB received the top three awards at the competition: Tournament Champions, Top Skills, and the coveted Excellence Award given to the team that is able to compete at the highest level with a strong engineering notebook along with a great interview with the judges. They have also been the top team in Skills in the World for VEXU for the last month.
The team members are Dustin Van Buskirk, (Ohio Northern University); Micah Woolf, (The Ohio State University); Natalie Dinovo (The Ohio State University); Zane Warren (Clark State University); and Owen Hall (Bowling Green). All the students are BHS graduates from the last three years, except Owen Hall, who graduated from North Union.
Many of the teams competing at Kalahari are registered through a college or university and are funded through their school or receive corporate sponsorship.
Team FOAB is a group of students from several colleges, so they have gotten tax-exempt status and created a 501c3 to get funding. They have worked tirelessly to create, fund, and maintain their team and robot. They continue to look for ways to make the program better at BMS and BHS.
Team FOAB qualified for the VEX World Competition in Dallas, Texas, with two spots from their awards and winning at Kalahari. They continue to have the highest Skills score at the collegiate level out of all the teams competing in the world.
Team FOAB will travel to Dallas on April 27. If you would like to support the team, e-mail them at [email protected].
The name of the organization is “Fearless Robotics” and Natalie Dinovo is the contact person.
Van Buskirk and Woolf have been giving back for the past two years. This year at BHS, they are coaching the high school robotics team as they design, build, program, and compete in the VEX High School competitions through the season. They have also volunteered to help the middle school teams and assisted at the Robotics Camp.
Sandi Chervenak and Jordan Reser are the co-advisers of the VEX Robotics Club at BHS and Bellefontaine Middle School.