Robotics Qualifying Tournament

By: Iliana Arriaza '25

On February 3, the SOCES Robotics team competed in the LAUSD qualifying tournament at Valley Academy of Arts and Sciences. They once again proved that SOCES has one of the best Robotics programs in California. 

SOCES fielded two different teams at the event. Team 20625, composed of new team members, finished second in the Think Award category and first in the Design award. Team 20626, made up of new veteran team members, was honored with the Inspire Award, allowing them to advance to the LAUSD FTC Regional Championship on March 2nd at Roosevelt High School.

Saturday’s achievements were a big step in returning to the national stage. Last year, SOCES went to the World Tournament for the first time in school history, because our amazing robotics team made it to the regional championships just from their first tournament.

Our robotics team should feel proud of themself for accomplishing such an amazing reward and honor. Mr. Shinozaki, the sponsor of the robotics team, also takes great pride in the students who worked hard, gave an amazing performance, and brought home the Inspire award and the Design award, which are both equally impressive. 

The next tournament is on March 2nd at Roosevelt High School, though now the team will have to prepare to crush the next competition and upcoming event. At the tournament, robotics students must follow a rule called “gracious professionalism,” an FTC concept that makes students in the tournament respectful of each other and have a friendly competition.

A member of the robotics team, Zaruhi, says, “It was very fun seeing a ton of different schools with many alliances and diverse robots.” To show good sportsmanship, our robotics team gave out goodie bags to the other competition as a sign of alliance and friendliness.