T-Wolves find inspiration; Whittier fields two teams

By Tony Pennington

Transcript Staff Writer

The Norman North High School botball team has been distracted.

In the past, the Timberwolves splintered and chased other robotic pursuits like the OK Best competition. This left last year's team with four core members and lacking in direction.

In contrast, Norman High School was anything but fractured. The Tigers pounced and dominated the local botball scene by stringing together back-to-back national championships.

But this is a new year. The pack has reformed and found inspiration and wisdom from a former mentor. And for the first time in a long time, they have found strength in numbers.

"We are more organized this year," said sophomore Zac Jennings, 16, of North's re-dedication to the sport of botball. In previous years, NNHS has had many disappointments and even faced a year without a botball team. "Now we have a larger and stronger team."

Norman North has watched Norman High build and program title-winning robots for two years. It wasn't that NNHS didn't have botball talent or students. Several of the current team gained robot experience as young botballers at Whittier Middle School. For some reason it didn't carry over to high school.

Team veterans said the team didn't communicate, and it seemed like work and got less enjoyable. They had to turn things around. And to do that, NNHS remembered how Whittier teacher and botball sponsor Charlie Bevers prepared them.

"Mr. Bevers always had a lot of team building stuff," said Kyle Ferguson, 14, freshman. "We got organized and assigned different tasks for different groups. That way we don't have people trying to do random things."

The culture change worked.

The North team became relaxed and focused on having fun and staying organized. Many Whittier alumni soon found themselves back in the workshop trying to figure out how to make robots complete several tasks on a competition field the size of a pingpong table. With more than 13 members, their ranks are swollen with talent.

"I think it's going to be a lot of fun this year," said ex-Whittier team member Robbie Terrell, 15, freshman.

While NNHS is finding its feet again, Whittier has plans to continue to build on past successes. According to Bevers, Whittier has been a consistent top 10 to 15 team each year.