AUSTINTOWN — Although the FIRST Robotics’ new season doesn’t start until January, 19 Ohio and Pennsylvania teams competed Sunday in a friendly off-season practice event at Austintown Middle School.

FIRST, short for “For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology,” teams build and program robots to complete assigned tasks and challenges,

Andy Yantes, coach for the Austintown Fitch High School Falco Tech robotics team, said Sunday’s event allowed the teams, especially new members, to see and experience a competition in preparation for the upcoming season in 2023.

He said teams will meet in early January when they will get the challenge for the 2023 season and then build robots for competitions both in state and out of state in March and April.

“The students get really addicted to the robotics’ competitions. The robotics program is so exciting and gives them so many opportunities. It is amazing to see what the students are able to do when they build and program a robot to take to competitions,” Yantes said.

Frank Bosak, a coach for Warren Harding’s team said Warren’s Team E.L.I.T.E. 48 won Sunday’s competition along with Pepper Pike’s Team 1787, the Flying Circuits, and Canfield’s Team 4601, the Circuit Birds.

Travis Hoffman, a team mentor for the Harding team, said the team is in its 25th year with this weekend’s event allowing new team members to get an idea of what competitions are about.

”They see what it is all about before they build their own robots in January, which will be the beginning of Harding’s 26th season. Today’s event is structured like an official event where the robots have to complete tasks to score points,” Hoffman said.

Judy Barber O’Brien, team adviser for Girard FIRST Robotics Robocats, said other off-season competitions will be held locally and in Cleveland throughout the fall.

O’Brien said the Girard High School FIRST Robotics Aptiv Team brought home first place from the Cleveland off-season competition against 24 other teams two weeks ago at the Curiosity Open held at the Great Lakes Science Center in Cleveland.

FIRST Robotics Team #379, The Aptiv RoboCats, from Girard High School, were captains of their alliance with teams from Pepper Pike and from Hathaway Brown School for Girls in Shaker Heights.

The RoboCats have 13 rookies on this year’s team of 27 members.

Sunday’s event challenge was for robots to collect red and blue balls in a playing area and shoot them into a “hub” or large container. Each robot needed to stretch and extend arms, climb and hang.

Renn Rohrer, a junior and three-year member on Harding’s team, said the local event is fun and less stressful than the regional events that are much bigger and have more teams competing.

“I like being here because it is such a welcoming and friendly event.” she said.

Jon Bancroft, a community industry mentor to the Harding team, said team members are working to get back up to pace following time lost due to COVID-19.

“During COVID we lost a lot of skill, so we are rebuilding the team,” he said.

Gavin Precurato, a senior and a four-year member on the Austintown team, said he keeps coming back to the team for the fun.

”You learn a lot, and being at the competitions is a lot of fun.” he said,

Howland High School has a new robotics team wrapping up its first year.

Dave Siegfried, team adviser for Howland FIRST Tigerbotics team and an engineer at Aptiv, said with the season kicking off in January the new team can get practice and experience at off-season events.