Six Plainwell Robotics Club Middle School Teams participated in the Michigan State Robotics Tournament yesterday in Monroe, Michigan and two teams qualified for the VEX World Championship Tournament to be held in Dallas, Texas in April.
Highlights from the competition include:
Team "Bad Bananas" placed 13th of 54 teams and qualified by winning the Think Award for their work to develop and implement quality robot programming as part of their strategy to solve the game challenge. Pictured below are team members Luca Cassada, Blaine Rensi, and Parker Montange. They are coached by Sarah and Curtis Orr.
Team "Trial and Error" placed 25th and qualified by achieving a high Skills score during the Monroe event. The Skills score is the total points accumulated during a one-minute driver-controlled phase, and a one-minute autonomous phase. Pictured below are team members Liam Preuninger, Mai Nguyen, and Erica Klein. They are coached by Marie Tsuji.
Team “Demoted Rookies” placed 18th in the Monroe event. Team members are Mason Anderson, Kolton Johnson, Isaiah Looney-McPhillips, and Lucas Pauly. They are coached by Marcus Anderson.
Team “B.A.T..T.LE.” placed 28th. Team members are Alexander Billheimier, Elliott Johnson, Rori Rosati, and Joseph Sanderson. They are coached by Jeremy Sanderson and Brooke Billheimier.
Team “Three Engineers” placed 30th. Team members are Jackson Albrecht, Walker Clippinger, Caleb Williams, and Ayden Young. They are coached by Matt Clippinger
Team “The Hackers” placed 42nd. Team members are Hunter Crouch, Aiden Glass, Liam Greene, and Parker Stull. “The Hackers” are coached by Charles Crouch.
Congratulations and “thank you” to all of our students, coaches and parents for a most challenging, educational, successful and enjoyable year.
BIG NEWS FROM FORD FIELD! Congratulations to our Individual Wrestlers who had a PHENOMENAL competition at the State Finals this weekend at Ford Field! Trammel Robinson is 3rd in the State in his weight class, Adin Young is 6th in the State in his weight class, Avery Lynch is 3rd in the State in her weight class, Coach Rodd Leonard was voted the D2 Coach of the Year for the STATE and…
MADDY NIEUWENHUIS IS THE STATE CHAMPION!!
Way to go Trojan Wrestlers - PLAINWELL PRIDE!
The Plainwell High School Honors’ Choir gave an outstanding performance of the National Anthem at the WMU vs. CMU basketball game last night! What a spectacular performance, way to go Trojans! Plainwell Pride!
The Plainwell High School Robotics teams had tremendous success last weekend at their State Championship Tournament. Teams Flourescent Bananas (Aiden Mallory, Tyler Vlietstra and Kevin Vicenzi) and So Many Problems (Danielle Klein, Sam Bacon and Owen Ferris) competed last Sunday against 75 of the top teams from across the state. Team Flourescent Bananas played strong defense in their matches and finished 2 of 7 in the qualifying rounds, with a qualifying rank of 30 out of 38 teams in their division. Unfortunately they were not selected for an alliance in the playoff rounds. Team So Many Problems relied on a strong autonomous program and all around performance to win 6 of 7 qualifying matches and were ranked 2nd of 39 teams in their division. They captained the second ranked alliance in the playoff rounds and made it to the division semifinals, just one win shy of qualifying for the Worlds tournament.
Both teams also received some press attention at the event, with Fluorescent Bananas being featured in a Flint Journal article on the event, and So Many Problems being interviewed for the YouTube channel RoboZone Show.
Flint Journal article:
https://www.mlive.com/news/flint/2023/02/high-schooler-designed-robots-compete-at-michigan-championship-in-flint.html
RoboZone Video:
https://youtu.be/lgkdM7SjySQ
The Robotics Club would like to thank their many volunteers and sponsors of the 2022-2023 season for their support of the robotics program. Go Trojans!
2022-2023 Sponsors:
Axis Automation
Bennett Family Agency
Buist Electric
Cedar Run Decoy Co.
Disher
Flowserve Corporation
Grandpa Joe’s Italian Kitchen
Johnson Controls
Miller Welding Supply
Plainwell Counseling Center
Quality Air
Earlier this week, Ellen Sponsler (MS Special Education Teacher) and Tracy Keesee (Elementary Special Education Teacher) presented at the CEC (Council for Exceptional Children) conference in Grand Rapids. The title of the session was "Working Smarter Not Harder: Leveraging 5 Evidence Based Practices for Specialized Health Instruction." Thank you for representing PCS so well Ms. Sponsler and Ms. Keesee. Plainwell Pride!
DISTRICT CHAMPS! Congratulations to the PHS Varsity Girls Basketball team on their win over Otsego tonight in the Distict Finals 51-41. Way to go, Trojans! Plainwell Pride!
The students at Cooper Elementary had a special visitor today, as the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra String Quartet performed for the school. It was an amazing experience for the Koalas!
Due to winter weather, there is no open family swim tonight (Friday, March 3).
Due to the potential winter weather, the MHSAA District Finals Girls Basketball game scheduled for tonight (3/3) has been moved to 5:30 PM. Join us this evening to cheer on the Trojans as they take on the Otsego Bulldogs in District Finals.
Need tickets? Please scan the QR code or visit gofan.co/app/school/MI10251. Good luck and GO TROJANS!!
Yesterday, Plainwell hosted a Band Festival for MSBOA District XI. The event ran from 12:30-8:30 PM with bands and orchestras from all over Southwest Michigan coming to perform in our amazing venue. Each ensemble was judged on a prepared performance as well as sight-reading! Plainwell’s 7th and 8th grade Bands as well as the High School Symphonic Band and Wind Ensemble performed and received superior and excellent ratings. Way to make Plainwell proud, PCS Bands!
The PHS Varsity Basketball team had a great win over Edwardsburg last night 49-42! It was a great game and a big win going into Districts next week. Way to go, Trojans! Plainwell Pride!
Attention families of Dog Secondary (6-12) bus riders, please check your email for an important update regarding your student's morning bus route for today (March 3). Thank you!
It’s a great day to be a Plainwell diver! Congratulations to Jake Westdrop and Brandon Courtney for their outstanding dives at Regionals tonight. Both qualified for the State Meet which will take place next weekend! Trojan Pride!
The Individual PHS Wrestlers are STATE BOUND! Good luck to Madison Nieuwenhuis, Avery Lynch, Austin Gyorkos, Steele Madison, Trammel Robinson and Adin Young who are chasing titles tomorrow (Friday, March 3) at Ford Field! Wrestling starts at 10:30 AM. Want to cheer on the Trojans? Click the links below for all session or individual tickets:
- Individual Tickets: ticketmaster.com/michigan-high-school-wrestling-finals-mhsaa-tickets/artist/2973837
- All Session Tickets: am.ticketmaster.com/detroitlions/MHSAA-Wrestling-All-Session
From all of us at PCS - GOOD LUCK, TROJANS!
Our Gilkey Gecko 4th graders had a great adventure yesterday while visiting the Capitol building and Michigan Historical Museum in Lansing. It was an amazing field trip filled with learning and fun! Thank you to the teachers and parent volunteers for making this a day to remember for these students.
In last night's first round of Districts the PHS Varsity Girls Basketball team beat Parchment 63-29. Grace Pettit led the team with 12 points and Maya Johnson had 10. Way to go, Trojans!
Next up, the team will be playing tomorrow (Friday, March 3) at Parchment in the District Finals at 7 PM against Otsego! To purchase tickets, please visit gofan.co/app/school/MI10251. GO TROJANS!!
Good luck PHS Divers Jake Westdorp and Brandon Courtney who will be competing in the Regional Diving Meet today at Hamilton. Join us to cheer on the Trojans, to purchase tickets please scan the QR code or visit gofan.co/app/events/885156?schoolId=MHSAA. Best of luck to Jake and Brandon in their quest for the state meet! Trojan Pride!
This beautiful day calls for some progress pictures of the new Trojan pool and gymnasium. Exciting things are happening at PCS, today they poured the pool walls.
Our continued thanks for voting “YES” on the 2019 Bond Proposal! We appreciate our community’s support of Today’s Learners, Tomorrow’s Leaders! Plainwell Pride!
Join us tonight (Wednesday, March 1) as the PHS Girls Varsity Basketball team competes in the first round of District play at Parchment High School against the Parchment Panthers at 7pm. Tickets are available by scanning the QR code or visiting: gofan.co/app/school/MI10251. Good luck - GO TROJANS!
FINAL DAY TO REGISTER! Girls grades 1-8th grade are invited to join us for the 2023 Girls Basketball Skills Camp from March 11-25. The camp, which is hosted by Coach Stephenson, Staff & PHS players, will be held on Saturday mornings with the following schedule:
- 1st-3rd Grade: 9:00-10:15 AM at PHS
- 4th-6th Grade: 10:30-11:45 AM at PHS
- 7th-8th Grade: 12:00-1:30 PM at PHS
The cost is $30 per athlete with a family rate of $15 for each additional child.
Registration is open through today (March 1, no registration at camp). Please visit https://plainwell.revtrak.net/high-school/hs-athletics/ to register today!
