WENTZVILLE 鈥 Wentzville鈥檚 Ratchet Rockers robotics team is one of the best in the country. But the team of 32 students from high schools across the city wants to be the best in the world.
The Ratchet Rockers will test their mettle this weekend in the international high school robotics championship in Houston, where they鈥檒l battle hundreds of teams from the U.S., Israel, Australia, Turkey, Mexico, Canada and more.
鈥淚t鈥檚 very competitive,鈥 said Darrell Wodrich, one of the team鈥檚 mentors.
The team is ranked ninth out of more than 2,800 teams in the U.S. 鈥 and they鈥檙e ranked 11th in the world, according to the robotics tracking website Statbotics.
But they鈥檝e been working furiously for months to prove they鈥檙e even better than that.
Teams participating in this weekend鈥檚 event, the FIRST Robotics Competition, were given an objective in January for their robot. This competition鈥檚 theme is music, and each team鈥檚 goal will be to launch foam rings called 鈥渘otes鈥 into goals, with at least 15 seconds of the match spent in an 鈥渁utonomous鈥 mode during which the bot operates entirely by itself.
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鈥淚 can鈥檛 wait,鈥 said senior Blake Roach. 鈥淭he adrenaline rush during that time is just so high.鈥
On Monday, three days before matches were set to begin, the Ratchet Rockers were preparing for their trip and performing their final tests on their 125-pound, industrial-sized robot named Riot.
Riot, named for a mid-2000s song by the rock band Three Days Grace, can throw notes into goals 鈥 or 鈥渟peakers鈥 and 鈥渁mplifiers,鈥 in keeping with the theme of the competition 鈥 at a speed of about 20 mph. In a practice arena, Riot zooms around with ease. At its fastest, Riot can move at 19 feet per second.
Students work on the bot four nights a week plus Saturdays, putting in hundreds of hours designing, building, coding and scouting the competition.
The Wentzville team already has a national reputation, in part because of their resources, team leaders said.
The Ratchet Rockers have an entire facility to themselves in the space of a former health center. And they鈥檙e the only robotics team in the area with a full 鈥渇ield,鈥 or a replica of the arena in which their robots will compete, Wodrich said.
Plus, a steady stream of alumni, volunteers and parents 鈥 many of whom haven鈥檛 had a child on the team in years 鈥 serve as mentors to help the team strategize and build.
Hester Menier got involved with the team after her daughter joined. Her daughter has since graduated and gone on to study Information Systems Technology at Missouri S&T 鈥 where many of the Ratchet Rockers study after high school.
Menier, an art teacher at Wentzville鈥檚 Stone Creek Elementary, said robotics wasn鈥檛 her 鈥渢hing,鈥 but there鈥檚 something to be universally understood about robotics teams. It鈥檚 more than just assembling a cool robot, she said. Maybe even more than preparing for a future in STEM.
鈥淭his is a very neuro-diverse group. A lot of them are very introverted and can鈥檛 even make eye contact when they come in,鈥 Menier said. 鈥淭hey have a hard time talking to adults, let alone each other. Being here and having to collaborate, they learn social skills and how to communicate effectively with each other.鈥
That was the case for Ian Deal, who graduated from the Wentzville School District in 2019 after the Ratchet Rockers 鈥渃hanged the trajectory of his life.鈥
鈥淎 lot of kids, including me, came in and could not talk to people,鈥 said Deal, now a manufacturing engineer in Hermann. 鈥淎 lot of us come back and see all the things that we鈥檝e done and the places we鈥檝e gone. It鈥檚 remarkable.鈥