As their season comes to a close, the Utica Community School’s robotics team, the Thunderchickens, celebrate their historic first place win at the world championship on Saturday, April 27.

Their 2018-2019 season started off a bit rocky in the beginning. With their robots losing round after round in the ring, the team was skeptical that they would even qualify for the lower level competition.

“We were performing well, but just kept losing,” junior Matthew Attisha said. “We really didn’t think that we were going to go through.”

The Thunderchickens aren’t strangers to the stiff competition that is featured at the state and world competitions, even placing second in the world last year. Yet there were still doubts within the team that they were going to be good enough to make it to the big competition this year.

“There was a doubt that we would even make it to the state championship,” junior Jacob Thomas said.

Fortunately, the team prevailed and made it to the world championship yet again. As the competition went on, they found themselves in the same spot they were the year before: in the championship match. With the title on the line, the Thunderchickens, who had previously doubted that they would even make it to the state championship, became the second overall pick for the championship game at the world competition.

For the match, there are two alliances made up of three teams facing off in the ring. The team with the last robot standing wins the match and the world title. The anticipation builds as the robots that each team has dedicated months to perfecting enter the ring and fight for dominance.

Finally, the results were clear, the Thunderchickens had won the match and the title of world champions. It was all smiles and celebration from the team as they relished in the fact that, at last, they had come out on top and were number one in the world.

“Nothing made me smile more,” said Attisha, as he reminisced about the moments after realizing that his team had become one of the top teams in the world.

With a final season record of 59-23 and a world championship title under their belt, there is no question that there are more great things ahead for the team in years to come.