Bethpage High School’s Regal Eagles has grown to become one of our most prominent clubs. From STEAM Night at Kramer Lane to FIRST Robotics Competition World Championships, the robotics team continues to make us proud. In order to find out more about Team 2869, The Eagle’s Cry sat down with The Regal Eagles.
TEC: When was this club founded and why? When do they usually meet?
The Regal Eagles: Our first year was 2008–2009. I would say we founded the robotics team for the same reason we have a football team and a Philosophy club (Ethics Bowl). Bethpage Schools wanted to give students more opportunities. The robotics team provides opportunities for kids to learn about technology, programming, engineering and other skills we associate with virtual enterprise. We were doing VE stuff for years before Bethpage had a VE class. We have marketing and social media departments. We have a web presence. We need to manage a budget. The team has written business plans and pitched initiatives to administrators and members of the community. And members of our team are selected to represent us at competitions where they give a presentation to a panel of judges, trying to “sell” them on the value that our team brings to our local community and the positive impact we have beyond Long Island.
FRC is like a varsity sport for the mind, but aspects of the team are also physically demanding and I encourage members to hit the weight room.
The Fall is our “pre-season” and we are meeting Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Not every kids comes to every meeting and we’ll have specific days when kids in different groups will need to come (e.g. the electrical training group might just meet on Thursday and Friday)
TEC: What are some highlights of last year’s season?
The Regal Eagles: The biggest highlight is when we won the Impact Award in New York City. We also had a really exciting lineup in competition in New York City because we came in second place, so we were close to winning. We were picked by one of the best teams in New York State, Stuyvesant High School because the game is three on three, so when one of the best teams picks you to join them, you have a really good shot at victory.
TEC: Are there particular types of students you look for and why?
The Regal Eagles: Mostly we want kids who are curious, motivated, and willing to get work done. Really we need all different skill sets, so a kid that can lift 300 pounds, he would be extremely useful to the team because the robot weighs 125 pounds and tools are heavy also. The small kid who’s really bright, also useful. The kid who’s not so great with technology, but is a great writer is excellent. We have a whole team that has to do writing, media, and outreach. A kid who’s into photography, we need that too. We do video editing and photography for advertising what we’ve done. The common thing that I need from any student who is part of the team is commitment, willingness to show up and get work done, and willingness to work well as a team.
TEC: What are the positions and the responsibilities of the members?
The Regal Eagles: Some kids are involved in organizing and managing projects, that would be for our Team Captain down to our Vice President of Operations and Vice President of Engineering. We also have kids that are involved in CAD, we have a CAD lead, that means computer-aided design, so they help with designing the robot. Lots of kids are involved with the mechanical side of it. There’s also writers because there are awards that we have to apply for that involve essays and short answers. We have a newsletter we put out, a web page, and an Instagram we keep up, so that involves writing and photography. Electrical is another aspect since we have a lot of things to wire together, and programming too.
TEC: What are some awards that this team has gotten?
The Regal Eagles: Last year, we call it the double banner year, we won the Impact Award and Engineering Inspiration Award. We’ve won one of these awards a number of times like for a number of years in a row. Those are awards given to the team for its overall outreach efforts. We won the runner up Alliance Award last year, and some other awards in the past as well.
TEC: How can those who aren’t part of The Regal Eagles support the team?
The Regal Eagles: An important way would be to show up to our fundraisers because the team needs a lot of money to build the robot.
TEC: What can people learn from being a part of this team?
The Regal Eagles: Lots of business skills. As I said before, it’s kind of like VE, before we did VE. So there’s lots of things that we can associate with business like marketing, effective communication, and there’s the engineering aspect of it, so they learn about building and mechanical things. Also, working together for a common goal under intense time pressure, having to make quick decisions and being responsible for those decisions.
Many of the Bethpage students and faculty are proud of the Regal Eagles. Samreen Ghotra, a junior at BHS, said, “It’s really cool seeing such intelligent kids working on robots and I know many freshmen this year that are working on the team. It’s crazy how kids at that young age are doing such great accomplishments.” Additionally, team mentor, Mr. Laspina said “I’m really proud of the highschool team we’ve built and of the kids we have on it, and we’re really proud that the community has been behind us, which has led to our success.”
