This week’s Jennie Stuart Orthopedic – Michael Venable State Farm Player of the Week is the entire Gateway Academy Robotics team.
The team includes Jesse Gilkey, Jackson Smith, Brayden Cardwell, Vincent Jeronimo, Riley Cook, Garrett Polete, Evan Paige, and Bradley Schmitt.
No, this award was not given to just one player this week, and some may not think that a robotics team could be qualified for this kind of award.
However, after reading and listening to this story, one will find out that this team is more than deserving.
Ben Smith, who is the head coach of the Robotics team, and also the engineering teacher at Gateway Academy discussed some of the things the team has done this year and how proud he has been to watch their success.
Jesse Gilkey (11th) talked about this success and how honored he is to represent Gateway Academy.
As assumed, to win all of these competitions and secure these accolades, high performance was required from each and every one of the members on the team.
For Jackson Smith (11th), he says that he has come a long way since the beginning of the season and has improved in multiple facets.
Brayden Cardwell (11th) explained how he and some other teammates have been through this journey for multiple years and look forward to seeing more improvement in just not the rest of this season, but in their senior year as well.
Although these students might not be throwing a ball, or running sprints, a few students explained that the sacrificing of time they spend on their projects is just as, if not more, strenuous than other sports.
Vincent Jeronimo (11th) and Gilkey shared their opinion on the topic.
Riley Cook (11th) , who is also a member of the Christian Co. High Soccer team, and the newest member of the robotics team, talked about the different things he’s experienced and how he’s handled his role on a new team.
Because of their win at state, the team is headed to Dallas to compete in a World Robotics competition.
For Jackson Smith, this will be his first time competing in the World competition.
Some members on the team including Vincent Jeronimo, have already competed in the global competition.
For Vincent, he had a very interesting experience in last year’s competition where he was able to come up clutch for his team.
Often in high school sports, teams just having a handful of athletes go on to play in the NFL, MLB, or NBA is extremely rare. What is special about this robotics team is that there’s a chance that all of these students could end up with a career that relates to robotics and engineering.
Garrett Polete, (12th) discussed those interest in pursuing engineering/computer science-based careers and how playing on this team has sparked their interest.
For Jesse Gilkey, he plans continuing to use his robotics skills at the collegiate level.
Lastly, Polete, Gilkey, Cook, Smith, and Jeronimo talked about some of their favorite things about being on this team, and some lasting memories that have been made.