2024 - Crescendo
Game will be announced on January 6th 2024 at 12 noon. We are excited.
2023 - Charged Up
With a team of only 4 students we were able to do great things this season. With the help of our partnering teams our alliance was able to pull out a District Win at the Midland Event. Students utilized components that were used in past games. They altered them to better fit the game play for Charged Up. We found that most other teams had switched from mechanum type drives and were using swerve steer type drive. These types of drives proved to be way faster than what our bot could travel. In hind site a faster drive train would have helped up to score faster in this very fast paced game.
2022 - Rapid React
We chose to adopt the every bot style of bot this season and performed very well. Our bot needed to be faster and we had too many breakages during gameplay from contact with walls (funny story) and other bots while intaking balls.
2021- COVID - At Home Challenges
Due to Covid this season was unique in the fact things were done remotely. We were luck enough to be able to meet as a team face to face but had to design a game from scratch and pitch the idea to a panel of judges. This was a very big change to what we havd been use to with face to face competitions of up to 40 schools.
2020 - Infinite Recharge - SEASON CANCELED DUE TO COVID
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, we were unable to finish our robot and unable to partake in any games as the season was canceled. Some teams were able to compete in the early Week 1-3 events.
2019 - Destination: Deep Space
This year, we had made an impressive design to ramp our teammates up to the ending platforms. However, as the game started, we had realized that it would not work as we planned. We then found that it was easier to work with the other teams by having our robot use a defensive position.
2018 - First Power Up!
This Year we will be competing in Shepherd and Forest Hills. While we didn't place in either of the events we still had a lot of fun through out both events. One of our favorite moments was when one of the team members drove the robot for the first time and tipped it over.
2017 - First Steamworks
Our fourth year started off slowly due to weather conflicts giving us only 3 weeks of the 6 allowed to build. On the bright side, the New Year also brought us 8 new team members. Our growing team and Douglas the robot hope to have a successful fifth year. Our first meet was at H.H. Dow in Midland, MI. it went fairly well despite our ranking of 30th in the Qualifying matches and not getting picked for an alliance for Finals. Our second meet was here at Shepherd at the first ever Shepherd Event! We enjoyed hosting the event, even though it took a lot of hard work. We competed well and ended in 9th place at the conclusion of the qualifying matches. We were picked for an alliance but sadly were beaten in the Quarter Finals
2016 - First Stronghold
Our third year began with only one mentor returning and the other taking a less involved role. We took part in the second annual Bot Bash held by H.H. Dow High. Although we did not win the event like last year, the new team members had a lot of fun. Our team was comprised of 3 students, one mentor, and one robot named the Spanish Inquisition. No one expected that! We participated in two district meets, the first at H.H. Dow High. We had an interesting few days, competing against much larger teams and even crashing our bot and fixing it in about an hour for the next match. The second match was in Howell, which was a bit complicated since we were left with only 2 students and one mentor. Yes we managed to compete with only 2 students at an event.
2015 - Recycle Rush
To start off our second year in robotics, the Radical Jays started with two new mentors, and a great outlook for the upcoming months. We took place in the first ever Bot Bash held in Midland at HH Dow High. Where we used the previous years robot from Aerial Assist. Our robot and team performed well enough to land us in the finals. While competing in the finals our robot kept having connectivity issues with the field. As a new team we did not have a spare radio but one magically showed up for us to use. Only after game play was over and we emerged victorious did we realize that it was leant to us by one of the teams we were competing against. After the kickoff event, we started collaborating to construct the newest member of the robot family-- (Schrödinger)-- The team had to work through many challenges including learning how to use Lab View Code and finding the right design and parts for the new robo rio system. We competed at HH Midland Dow, and Standish Sterlin
2014 - Aerial Assist (Rookie Year)
In 2013, Governor Snyder attended the Michigan Robotics State Championship. He was so impressed; he worked to have legislation passed to fund robotics teams in Michigan. Through the states funding initiative many rookie teams were formed in Michigan. As of the 2013-2014 season, Michigan ranks first in the United State with 278 FRC teams. It was through this initiative that Shepherd High School was able to obtain the funding to start the RADICAL JAYS.
Our first season was filled with challenges and successes. Not having enough mentors who could advise and help the student with much of the technical parts of the robot, the team decided to change from a shooting robot to a purely defensive strategy. At Howell, the first meet the team went to, we won the Rookie Inspiration Award, but were unable to score high enough or perform well enough to make an alliance for the playoffs. Rather than scrap the idea of a defensive robot we went to work and used the time to develop a driving strategy that would not only keep the opponent from scoring, but created a method for scoring two balls in the autonomous period (without a shooter). With the new driving and game strategy, the team ended the Great Lakes Bay Region District event by becoming the 4th alliance Captain, stopping some of the best scores in the state. With the points they scored they finished the season ranked in a tie for 65th place, only one point form the last place team to make it to state. The Jays appreciate everyone who sponsored and supported in our first season. We look forward to growing and maturing as a team and Gracious Professionals. We especially would like to thank TEAM 4819 The Flat Mountain Mechanics. It was their robotics and programming expertise that helped us be so successful.
Our first season was filled with challenges and successes. Not having enough mentors who could advise and help the student with much of the technical parts of the robot, the team decided to change from a shooting robot to a purely defensive strategy. At Howell, the first meet the team went to, we won the Rookie Inspiration Award, but were unable to score high enough or perform well enough to make an alliance for the playoffs. Rather than scrap the idea of a defensive robot we went to work and used the time to develop a driving strategy that would not only keep the opponent from scoring, but created a method for scoring two balls in the autonomous period (without a shooter). With the new driving and game strategy, the team ended the Great Lakes Bay Region District event by becoming the 4th alliance Captain, stopping some of the best scores in the state. With the points they scored they finished the season ranked in a tie for 65th place, only one point form the last place team to make it to state. The Jays appreciate everyone who sponsored and supported in our first season. We look forward to growing and maturing as a team and Gracious Professionals. We especially would like to thank TEAM 4819 The Flat Mountain Mechanics. It was their robotics and programming expertise that helped us be so successful.