San Diego Sports Arena
3500 Sports Arena Blvd
San Diego, CA 92110For more information click here.
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On March 2 to March 8, 2010, Team 359 traveled to San Diego, California for our first FRC regional of the year. San Diego was filled with many activities which consisted of shopping at nearby outlet malls, Speed Way racing, and team dinners. But on March 4-6, the team had no free day to do sightseeing throughout San Diego or doing fun activities. Only five minutes away, Team 359 traveled to the San Diego Sports Arena where the San Diego Regional was held. The Waialua Robotics team competed against 49 robotics teams from around the country. On Thursday March 4, a practice day for all team participants, they all unpacked their crates and set up their pit areas. For Team 359, it was a very busy and stressful day. After unpacking our crate and setting up everything in our pit area, students immediately got to work. For some, they tested the robot to ensure that everything was working. Our robot did not pass inspection until nearly the end of the day due to many complications. Some problems that our team had to overcome to pass inspection were the electronics board that did not pass the negativity test, the robot did not have the required stickers, and the wheels on the robot where past the required dimensions. Construction mentors and students worked throughout the day to correct all the complications that our team was going through. At nearly the end of the day, our robot finally passed inspection, giving our team an opportunity to have some practice matches on the field.
On Friday March 5, the first official day of the San Diego Regional, Team 359 once again tested out the robot to ensure that all functions were working properly. The Chairman’s Award crew stayed in the pit area throughout the three days of the competition. They talked to the many judges, students, and visitors who came to our pit area about our team and how we sustain our program. They were trying to get the judges to see that the Waialua Robotics team has a program that other teams look up to. The scouting team walked around the pit area, visiting the many teams asking questions about the functions of their robot which will be valuable information for our team. For today, our team had a total of 7 matches losing only our second match of the day. After each match, students and mentors checked the robot to make sure that everything was functioning correctly, such as the kicker, and made sure that the laptop on the electronics board and battery were charged. Our Safety Captain also made sure that our pit areas were clean, sweeping the floors and putting back all the tools into their proper places so that our area looked well organized. It was indeed a very long day for everyone as they waited around in the pit area until the next match. Our team also handed out team buttons, shell necklaces, and Hawaiian print lanyards while conversing with the other robotic teams. At the end of the day, with losing only one match, Team 359 were able to secure a spot as one of the top 8 teams at the completion of the first official day of the competition.
It is day three of the San Diego Regional and Team 359 is up and ready for the last day of the competition. Our team competed in their last 3 qualification matches, winning all three. Taking the top eight teams, the Hawaiian Kids were the 4th seeded team. In the alliance selection process, Team 359 first selected Team 100, the WildHats from California, and then they chose Team 294, the Beach Cities Robotics from California. In order to move on to the next round in the finals, the seeded team with their chosen alliances needed to win two matches in order to move to the next level. For our team we challenged Team 1868 (Space Cookies), Team 599 (Robodox), and Team 981 (Snowbotics) in the quarter-finals. Losing our first match 3-5, our team came back and won the next two matches with scores of 10-4 and 8-2; and moved on to the semi-finals. Next up, Team 359 challenged Team 687 (The Nerd Herd), Team 2839 (The Daedalus Project), and Team 1299 (The Devil Duckies). Our team once again lost in the first match of the semi-finals with a score of 2-5, but won the next two matches 4-3 and 9-3. Moving on to the Finals, Team 359 rechecked the robot, Poi Pounder X, to make sure that everything worked before setting up the robot onto the playing field, while all teams that attended the regional sat in the stands and watched the final two matches of the day. In the finals, the Red alliance consisted of teams 115 (MVRT), 2543 (TitanBOT), and 1717 (D’Penguineers). On the Blue alliance consisted of our team and the two teams that we chose during alliance selection: Team 100 and Team 294. It was very nerve racking for our team as the match was about to begin. Making it to the finals for our tenth year this year, the Hawaiian Kids were ecstatic. During the first mach of the finals, Team 100 and 294 kicked the soccer balls into our zone during autonomous mode. When the tele-operating period of the match began, our team went straight to scoring while one of the robots on the red alliance attempted to prevent our robot from scoring. While we continuously scored, team mate 294 defended the Red alliance goal and kept the red alliance from scoring while Team 100’s job was to shoot balls from the middle section into our scoring area so that we could then shoot them into the goal. During the last 20 seconds of the match, Team 100 headed to the tower to perform their end of game bonus, giving the Blue alliance an extra two points. As the match ended and the results were shown, the Blue alliance won the first match in the finals, with a score of 8-4. It was time for the second match of the finals. Repeating the same procedures of the autonomous round, Team 100 and 294 continued to kick balls over into our zone. We were able to score soccer balls into the goal while the other team played defense against us. Each team did their best to fulfill their roles in the match from defending to scoring with team 100 hanging from the tower at the end of the match. We all sat and waited till the results were revealed. When the results appeared onto the screen, the score was 3-1! What an outstanding match! The Hawaiian Kids and our alliance partners were cheering as loud as they could in the stands, jumping up and down as the results of the match appeared. Team 359, Team 100, and Team 294 are 2010’s San Diego Regional Winners!
