Loveland Magazine

LOVELAND MAGAZINE

News and Events from the Loveland, Ohio Area

Without fear or favor

Since 2004

Tag: tournaments

  • Loveland FIRST LEGO League Challenge teams are heading to the Ohio FLL State Championship!

    Loveland FIRST LEGO League Challenge teams are heading to the Ohio FLL State Championship!

    Team 4075 Striped Might members Aaron Frazier, Brennan Kosht, Grant Macura, Tucker Freve, Isabel Combs, Ethan Pachmeyer, and Lauren Skinner

    Team 4075 Striped Might won the Champion’s Award, which recognizes a team “that embodies the FIRST LEGO League experience, by fully embracing our Core Values while achieving excellence and innovation in both the Robot Game and Project.”

    Loveland, Ohio – Five Loveland FLL Challenge teams of students in grades 4-8 competed in January in tournaments across Ohio. The teams began their season in August, and have been working to design, build and program a LEGO robot to complete the missions of this year’s robot game.

    As part of Challenge, teams also participate in a research project to identify and solve a relevant real-world problem, helping people in their community be more active.

    All FLL Challenge tournaments were held remotely this year, and to compete, teams submitted 3 videos of their robot runs and presented to judges over Zoom about their Innovation Project, their robot design, and the Core Values they practiced throughout the season.

    All five Loveland FLL Challenge teams qualified to advance to the Championship based on their performance in their qualifying tournaments.  The Ohio FLL Challeng Championship will take place in March.

    Team 38182 Masked Mechanics won the Engineering Excellence Award, which celebrates a team with “an efficiently designed robot, an innovative project solution that effectively addresses the season challenge and great Core Values evident in all they do.”

    Team 38182 Masked Mechanics
    John Paul Galles, Elijah Eppley, Jacob Drown, A.J. Drown, Owen Helms, and Luke Varadachari

    Team 50712 Exploding Watermelonzz won the Innovation Project Award, which recognizes a team that “utilizes diverse resources for their Innovation Project to help them gain a comprehensive understanding of their problem, have a creative, well-researched solution and effectively communicate their findings to judges and the community.” 

    Team 50712 Exploding Watermelonzz
    Owen Ewald, J.T. Brinkman, Izzy Bisogni, Bryce Hemphill, Nolan Hicks, Cameron Dickey,  Eloise Young , and Charlotte Kady.

    Team 45562 The Growling Gears, which is sponsored by Girl Scouts of Western Ohio, and Team 51294 RobotActiveX each won the Robot Design Award, which celebrates a team that “uses outstanding programming principles and solid engineering practices to develop a robot that is mechanically sound, durable, efficient and highly capable of performing challenge missions.”

    Team 45662 Growling Gears
    Sarah Papsdorf, Caroline Chesar, Abigail Boyle, Mia Ireland, Ellie Livingston , Caitlin Ryan

    Team 51294 RobotActiveX also won the Robot Design Award at a separate tournament.  The Design Award is given to a team that “uses outstanding programming principles and solid engineering practices to develop a robot that is mechanically sound, durable, efficient and highly capable of performing challenge missions.”

    Team 51294 RobotActiveX

    Back row from left to right: Anderson Hunt, 4th grade at LES, Logan Pape, 5th grade at LIS, Sam Herber, 4th grade at LES

    Front row from left to right: Hunter Hodgson, 4th grade at LES Maddie Dougherty, 4th grade at LES Nicholas Gatsos, 4th grade at LES

  • OHSAA Confirms Cancellation of Spring Sports

    OHSAA Confirms Cancellation of Spring Sports

    by Cassie Mattia

    Loveland, Ohio – The Ohio High School Athletic Association (OHSAA) informed member schools, including the Loveland City School District Monday, April 20th, that Spring sports would officially be canceled. This decision was made after Ohio Governor Mike DeWine announced earlier the same day that school facilities would remain closed for the rest of the academic year due to the coronavirus COVID-19.

    OHSAA Executive Director Jerry Snodgrass sent out a memo confirming to school administrators following Governor DeWine’s press conference about the Spring sports cancellation. For weeks, the OHSAA communicated that if schools remained closed for the year Spring sports would be canceled as well. Of course, there were several reasons that went into the final decision of Spring sports being canceled, one of the main reasons being that it would be nearly impossible to ensure the health and safety of all individuals and support personnel involved in practices and contests at all member schools.

    OHSAA Executive Director Jerry Snodgrass

    “As we have stated in our previous communications, today’s announcement by Governor DeWine to close schools for the remainder of the 2019-20 school year also will now result in the cancellation of OHSAA-sponsored spring sports seasons including tournaments,” Snodgrass wrote Monday.

    The OHSAA’s mandatory no-contact period for all interscholastic sports will remain in effect until at least May 3, and could in fact be extended until a later date. Coaches and school administrators have been encouraged to have non-mandatory electronic and online communications with their student-athletes during the no-contact period. The closure of school facilities includes all athletic facilities for any interscholastic training, practice, or competition.

    In an interview Monday afternoon, Snodgrass reflected on the unprecedented times that the pandemic has brought to the nation and the impact it has had on schools and interscholastic athletics.

    “I’ve heard from so many people who have said ‘You really need to understand what this means to our kids,’” Snodgrass said during the interview. “I’m a parent. I was a coach. I grew up every day as a player and a coach wanting to play high school sports and get to the state tournament. So I do think I understand that. I also have to go with the fact that my number one concern that I have, over everything, is the health and safety of everyone involved. It’s not just our student-athletes. It’s the parents, coaches, umpires, officials, the scorekeepers. All those things enter into this. It’s a tough decision and it’s one that I and all the other Executive Directors of the other states never thought we would have to do. Never did I think this would be the case, but I’ve tried to be as prepared as I could every step of the way.”

    Snodgrass also addressed the Summer and the start of Fall sports in the interview

    “July is a very physical month for our student-athletes entering fall sports, so we have already started looking at, if this continues through the summer, we’ll have the potential of having a lot of kids who haven’t had the physical activity that they would normally have going into a fall season. So for the health and safety of everyone, we have to look at the acclimation periods going into the fall, if that happens. We have to be prepared for that. We’re also talking about that if this does go through the summer, what is the likelihood that a student can get in to get a physical (annual medical exam). We have a sports medicine advisory group that is looking at that. They are looking at all aspects such as whether artificial surfaces need to be treated. We are relying on the advice of experts in our decision making.”

    The OHSAA said that they will continue to communicate throughout the Spring and during the Summer regarding any adjustments to OHSAA’s off-season regulations, academic eligibility standards, sports medicine updates, and more. STAY TUNED!

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  • More than 40 VEX Robotics Teams Ready to compete at Loveland High School on December 21

    More than 40 VEX Robotics Teams Ready to compete at Loveland High School on December 21

    Students in the VEX Robotics Program at Loveland High School started working on their current robots last summer and will continue to refine them throughout the 2019-20 competition season.

     

    Loveland, Ohio – It may be just a few days before Christmas, but teams from Loveland High School (LHS) and Loveland Middle School (LMS) will be competing with more than 40 other teams from across the region in the VEX Robotics Competition at LHS on December 21, officially kicking off their tournament season. The seven Loveland teams have been hard at work preparing for the 2019-2020 season.

    “This game has many challenging aspects, including robot design, programming, and game strategy,” said LHS Robotics Coordinator Amy Stewart.

    In the competition, teams of students will use their own designed and built robots to compete against other teams in a game-based engineering challenge. This year’s VEX Robotics game, “Tower Takeover,” is played on a 12’x12’ square field with the object of attaining a higher score than the opposing alliance by placing cubes in towers or scoring cubes in goals.

    “This game has many challenging aspects, including robot design, programming, and game strategy,” said LHS Robotics Coordinator Amy Stewart.

    The matches on December 21 start at 9:45 AM and the event concludes with an awards ceremony around 4 PM.

    The competition is open to the public and free of charge.

    The competition tests the students’ knowledge of STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) concepts, inspiring them to bring their best problem-solving skills to the table while simultaneously building on teamwork, leadership, and communication skills for life. Tournaments are held throughout the year at the regional, state and national levels, with an eye toward the VEX Robotics World Championship, which is held annually in April.

    The matches on December 21 start at 9:45 AM and the event concludes with an awards ceremony around 4 PM.

    The competition is open to the public and free of charge.

    To learn more about this year’s competition game, visit vexrobotics.com.

    For more information about programs available to students at Loveland, visit Loveland Robotics at lovelandrobotics.wixsite.com.


  • Loveland Robotics hosts 2 upcoming tournaments

    Loveland Robotics hosts 2 upcoming tournaments

    Loveland Robotics is hosting two tournaments during the 2018-19 season

    December 22 and January 5

    Loveland, Ohio – Loveland Robotics is hosting two tournaments during the 2018-19 season.

    The first is the Loveland Robotics VEX Holiday Tournament on December 22, 2018, and it is a VEX Robotics Competition (VRC) Tournament for Middle School and High School VEX teams. Forty teams from across Ohio can sign will compete to advance to the Ohio Vex Robotics Championship. It will take place at Loveland High School with matches starting around 9 AM. Loveland has 4 high school VEX teams and 3 middle school VEX teams that will be participating in the tournament.

    VEX Robotics is a competitive robotics program, presented by the Robotics Education & Competition Foundation, for middle schools, high schools and colleges around the world. The VEX Robotics Design System is used in many classrooms around the world. There are currently more than 10,000 teams from 32 countries participating in more than 750 VEX Robotics Competition events worldwide. The competition season culminates each Spring, with the laudable VEX Robotics World Championship event, uniting top qualifying teams from local, state and international VEX Robotics Competitions. 

    The second tournament Loveland Robotics is hosting is the FIRST LEGO League (FLL) Cincinnati District Tournament on January 5, 2019. It is hosted by the two Loveland teams, FTC Teams, Team 10464 The Bionic Tigers and Team 5040 Nuts & Bolts to help promote STEM in our community. The FLL District tournament is a second level tournament for teams who have advanced from a regional qualifying tournament. Thirty teams of students in grade 4-9 from across the area will be competing, and the top teams will advance to the Ohio FLL Championship.

    FIRST, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, was founded in 1989 by Dean Kamen to inspire young people’s interest and participation in science and technology. The mission of FIRST is to inspire young people to be science and technology leaders by engaging them in four exciting mentor-based programs that build science, engineering and technology skills, that inspire innovation, and that foster well-rounded capacities including self-confidence, communication, and leadership. The sequence of FIRST programs in the United States begins with the FIRST LEGO League Jr. program serving elementary school-aged youth (ages 6-9), followed by the FIRST LEGO League (FLL) program serving primarily middle school-aged youth (ages 9-14), the FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) serving grades 7-12, and FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC), serving high school-aged youth (grades 9-12). In the 2018 FIRST Longitudinal Study, FIRST reported that over 515,000 young people participated in its programs on more than 59,000 teams, competing in more than 2,900 tournaments worldwide.