First LHS robotics competition yields team 'Rookie' award

The first competition of the Luverne High School robotics team yielded a rookie team award and plenty of experience, according to coach Aaron Perkins.
Perkins, 17 students and three adult chaperones traveled to the Great Northern Regional 2020 FIRST Robotics Competition Feb. 26-29 in Grand Forks, North Dakota.
The team named the “Mighty Morphing Banana Slugs” was one of 60 teams competing at the event.
They came away from the event with a 4-5-0 record and ranked 46th out of 60.
“The actual competition was rough to start,” Perkins said. “We had a number of odd and rare technical issues that took some time to resolve. We eventually did resolve these issues and had a decent finish.”
Judges recognized Luverne with the “Rookie Inspiration Award” for their team recruitment, outreach, commitment and understanding the FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) mission.
“This award may help us move on to the Minnesota state competition,” Perkins said.
In addition to the robotics competition, students learned about scholarship opportunities and made presentations about business and safety plans and engineering notebooks.
“It was a great experience, and I hope that the school and community will support this further,” Perkins said.