Coronado High School is the home base for District Eleven’s only robotics team, operating within a program called FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology). Coronado’s team is called Cougars Gone Wired, team 2996, and is easy to join. Madison Rutherford, 12, the team CEO claims the team “will take anyone with any level of experience, including none, because that’s what we are here for, we are here to teach you.” and if you want to join “you just show up. Wednesdays [from] six to eight, you just come to one meeting, see if it’s for you”.

To give a little context the team is a year round commitment, much like a varsity sport, whether it’s doing demonstrations around the city for younger students to show them what STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math) is all about and how to get involved. Every year the team builds a robot during six week period in January and February, then robot is taken to two regional competitions to compete in a robot competition for the chance to go to championships. The team is more than just robots though, there is also a business side of the team which manages money, community outreach, video and photography, and essays written for awards. Cougars Gone Wired has approximately 50 members each year with students from all four grades. The team is very successful, having made it to championship eight out of the nine years they have been operating. Being on the team will give you countless opportunities to develop skills such as “how to program in Java, [to] learn how to wire robots, how different electrical components work, how to put them together, you learn design processes, you learn how to use all the machines in the wood shop” and much more, said Madison Rutherford, 12.

On August 26th, from 12:00 to 3:00 the team is meeting on the football field for the annual team BBQ. The BBQ is not just for the current members, but an event for families, friends, and anyone who is considering joining, to come and socialize with the team.