Cheney MS/HS Robotics

The town of Cheney is located approximately twenty miles west of Wichita, the largest city in the state of Kansas. The Cheney MS/HS Robotics program is supported by the administration, parents, and board of education of Unified School District #268. Cheney Middle School's robotics program began as a club starting in 2005. From then until 2015, the school participated in the Lego Mindstorms competitions put on by Wichita State University's College of Engineering. In 2016, the district invested in the VEX robotics platforms for grades 7-12. During the initial year of implementation, five high school students participated using four startup VEX EDR kits but did not attend any competitions. The second year of implementation saw four high school students and a rotating mix of middle school students sharing eight kits. The second year students were able to practice on our own authentic competition arena and realized several notable, first achievements (such as first alliance win and first time placing in the top eight) at four different competitions. Excitement was brewing early in August for our third year as we geared up to compete with seven high school students and sixteen middle school students. Our arena for the 2018-2019 game, Turning Point, was built and ready to go. New for this third season was our effort to host competitions. A blended scrimmage (HS and MS teams) occurred on November 3. Local engineers, tech savy individuals, HS and MS student volunteers, as well as the Coach's wife, Shari, helped host a 15-team tournament.  We even had a JUDGES AWARD winner from our own teams. The teams enjoyed success at various tournaments throughout the year. At different tournaments our teams won various awards including the EXCELLENCE AWARD twice, the SPORTSMANSHIP AWARD, the DESIGN AWARD three times, and the TOURNAMENT SEMI-FINALIST AWARD three times. We were able to qualify for the final elimination tournament many times. Cheney hosted our first ever state tournament qualifying MS tournament on February 23, hosting 30 teams. Two of our teams qualified for state by winning the excellence and design awards, and two more qualified as a result of their SKILLS CHALLENGE scores. At the state competition in Hutchinson on March 1, three of Cheney's teams were in the top ten out of the 24 teams. One team (Dolphin, 61538A, Nolan Campbell, Brooke Hoeme, & Jacob Rohloff) qualified for and competed at the WORLD competiton in Louisville, Kentucky by winning the top robot award at state; the EXCELLENCE AWARD. At the conclusion of a pandemic tightened 20-21 (Change Up), one MS team (61538D, The Green Team, Maddox Ayres, Cooper Frieden and Colton Strodtman) qualified for the virtual world's competition. For Tipping Point in 21-22, we were pleased to have another MS team qualify for, fundraise, and attend World's in Dallas, Texas (61538B, Bandits, Eli Albers, Graham Gregory, Conner Martin, and Quaid Thomas) and were 3-7. The school year 22-23 saw a significant increase in the amount of students wanting to take Robotics and be involved. This would see the third straight year of one HS class offering with 17 students but the single class of 15 MS students grew to two dedicated class periods of 32. The HS did not qualify for State, but did finish with a Judges Award as well as a Tournament Finalist Award (both were won by 98471C, TechnoShark, Weston Hill, Caleb Colier, Jordan Stoehr, and Cash Young). The MS program saw unparalleled success with 7 of our 9 teams qualifying for the 24 team field at STATE. Three of the teams qualified for and continued on, attending Worlds at Dallas (Bandits - EXCELLENCE and SKILLS - Eli Albers, Graham Gregory, Maddox Ayres, and Quaid Thomas; One Green Wheel - FINALISTS - Daltyn Bratcher, Hayden Hemken, Drew Capeheart, and Eli Price; Silver Bullets - FINALISTS - Ace and Maverick Hillman, Brian Williams, and Alex de la Serna). Additionally, the team of Fantastic Four - Berkely McKinley, Aseel Albawardi, Kinsey Berry, and Nikki Wright won the JUDGES award at state. This year also saw local business sponsors come on board supporting the program.  Please note that if you wish to volunteer or support the robotics mission please see the support page.

Note: A special thank you to Mr. Trevor Foreman, the sponsor of the Hesston, Kansas Robotics team. You and your students were instrumental in helping start our Cheney Robotics team. Another thank you goes out to Lake Stevens' (Washington) Colt and Vikings Robotics Clubs' website as my inspiration in creating this website!