HSISHISI

April Newsletter 2014

S.W.A.T. at Harvesters
FIRST Team 1806 is now
accepting donations for
the trip to St. Louis for
the FRC World
Championship.
Please mail donations to:
645 S. Commercial Ave
Smithville, MO 64089.
Please make checks pay-
able to Smithville High
School with
Robotics Team in the
memo line.
Thank you very much for
your support!
" Fruit snack, triple stack, Pow Pow Rav. Double Milk, Raisin, Double

Crispies! Pull tab up, Seal em up, pack 5, box em up, go, go, go!"
Chanted S.W.A.T. Head Coach Scott Vitek as Smithville High robotics In this Issue
students packed meals that would be distributed as part of the KC chal- Page 1
lenge BackSnack campaign. S.W.A.T. at Harvesters
Page 2
On April 3, 35 SWAT members of food for the weekend. These
Pancakes at the Art
along with 7 mentors donated two backpacks need to be filled and
Show
hours of their afternoon to help sort assembled and thats where
food for Harvesters Community S.W.A.T. Team 1806 comes in. Competition Spotlight
Food Network. Harvesters is the Forming two assembly lines stu- Page 3
only food bank in the Kansas City dents and mentors quickly filled SWAT Senior
area and distributed 44 million bags with cans, cereal, fruit snacks,
pounds of food last year, with an and milk that is distributed weekly Breakfast at the American
estimated 16.2 million pounds go- for thousands of area children in Legion
ing to feed children under age 18. need. The team filled a total of SWAT Prepares for
More than 26,000 children are 1,598 bags for the BackSnack pro- World Championship
fed each week through their vari- gram, and is looking forward to Page 4
ous programs. BackSnack is a pro- going back to harvesters, and doing
Krispy Kreme Donut
gram in which low income children more community outreach projects.
Sales
are provided with a backpack full
April Newsletter 2014
S.W.A.T. Senior
Nathan Vitek
When Mr. Scott Vitek started a FIRST robotics
team in the fall of 2005, his son Nathan Vitek was
only in 4th grade. Like all young boys, Nathan want-
ed to be just like his father; in his case being like his
father meant he would be building robots. Ten year
old Nathan dreamed of one day driving the robot for
S.W.A.T. Team 1806 at the World Championships.
As the years passed, Nathan watched from the side-
lines and marveled at the engineering and design of
the robots. He look forward to the day he would be
behind the controls.
In 2012 Nathan, a 10th grader at the time, would
finally get the chance to fulfill part of his dream.
When senior driver Zach Martin graduated after the
2011 season, the S.W.A.T. robotics team needed
someone to step up, and Nathan didnt hesitate to try
to fill the position. In that 1st year, Nathan drove the
robot to a 22-15 record, barely missing the cut to
make it to the FIRST World Champions.
Despite the disappointment of that first year, Na-
than came back in 2013 and led S.W.A.T. Team 1806
to a 33-9 record that included 1st place finishes at the
FIRST Kansas City Regional, and FIRST Oklahoma
Seniors Cameron Shilko and Nathan Vitek at the Greater Kan-
sas City Regional March 15th, 2014.
City Regional, and a quarterfinal finish on the Galileo
field at the FIRST World Championships.
The 2014 season started out with Nathan driving
S.W.A.T. to a 10-4-1 record at the new Central Illi-
nois regional, but eliminated after a very competitive
quarterfinal. The Kansas City Regional would be the
last chance that Nathan would have to drive for a spot
at the World Championship.
In both the quarterfinals and semifinals, Nathan
drove his heart out as SWAT came one match away
from elimination twice and Nathans senior season
almost came to an end. With everything on the line,
Nathan faced pressure of being eliminated and drove
better than he had all year. Nathan was able to make
sure that his father would get one last chance to see
him driving at the World Championships.
Mr. Vitek and the rest of the robotics team
watched in nervous excitement as Nathan achieved
his dream of making it to the World Championship
once again. Those members watching from the stands
couldnt help but notice the obvious admiration and
pride on Mr. Viteks face.
When asked about his upcoming graduation, Na-
than commented, Its bittersweet knowing that this is
my last year. Ive found a family in my team that can
never be replaced, no matter where the future takes
me. Robotics has brought my dad and me closer and
has made me who I am today. Nathan will be attend-
ing Missouri S&T in the fall. Mr. Vitek is sad to see
him go but happy as he tackles lifes next challenge:
College!
 S.W.A.T. Prepares
for the World
Championship
S.W.A.T. has taken numerous
measures to prepare themselves for
the world competition in St. Louis.
S.W.A.T. has changed their robot to
improve their shooting and autono-
mous reliability. Now the robot can
make 10x more points per shot and
also reliably get the ball into the high
goal.
Also, the robots drive train had
been damaged and needed to be re-
paired. The S.W.A.T. team has only
been performing these changes on the
practice robot and will have to rapidly
make these changes on the competi-
tion robot since it is already in St.
Louis for competition.
Preliminary match schedules were
released and members of S.W.A.T.
sorted through them and sized up the
competition, predicted scores, and
looked at the skills of the other robots.
Scouting, therefore, becomes crucial
as S.W.A.T. can then pinpoint each
teams strengths and weaknesses and
use them to our drivers advantage.
S.W.A.T.s business team has
spent countless hours making sure
that everything goes smoothly with
the both breakfasts and the donut
fundraiser to raise money for the trip.
Thanks to all of the work done by the
mentors and students at S.W.A.T., the
team is now prepared to go to world
Breakfast at the American
Legion
S.W.A.T. members hosted a fundraising breakfast at the American
Legion on April 19th..
Smithville Robotics Team 1806 hosted a fundraising
breakfast at the American Legion in Smithville, Missouri to
help raise money for their trip to the World Championship in
St. Louis. Members served fruit, pancakes, eggs, bacon and
biscuits and gravy to 186 hungry customers and demonstrated
this years robot to members of the community.
Pancakes at the Art Show
April 12th Smithville
High School hosted the an-
nual district wide art show in
which art work from all
schools and grade levels is
put on display for the public
from 7-12. Smithville Robot-
ics hosted a breakfast for pa-
trons of the art show provid-
ing pancakes and sausage to
local art lovers in the high
school cafeteria.
On display was this years
FRC and FTC robot. Mayor
Brian Fullmer of Smithville robot.
was in attendance and Team 1806 also proudly
S.W.A.T. members had the displayed their involvement
opportunity to talk to and in the community and helped
show Mayor Fullmer, along raise funds for the trip to the
with other members of the World Championship in St.
community, this years Louis April 23rd to the 26th.
World Championship bound
 Krispy Kreme Donut Sales Sponsors of the
Week!

S.W.A.T. members sold and delivered donuts after school on April 16th to
Visit our Website!
help raise money for the World Championship. www.smithvillehighrobotics.com/

This years Krispy Kreme donut sales were an all time high for Smith-
ville Robotics team 1806 with S.W.A.T. members selling 325 dozen And Follow us on
donuts to teachers, friends, family and other members of the communi-
ty. This years donuts sales helped to pay for S.W.A.T.s upcoming trip
Twitter! @frc1806
to the World Championship in St. Louis April 23rd through the 26th .

Thank You Sponsors!

Darrell Smith Dave Telles G. Gupta

Russell & Betty Woollums Denny & Nancy Lowe Earl & Diane Soetaert
Paul Clouse Jeff & Anne Townsend Robert & Beth Armstrong
Bill & Bonita Farrell Chuck & Joan Hitchborn Greg Armstrong

April Newsletter 2014