A massive high school competition this week in Minnesota has fans, referees, 99 teams, and is highly competitive.
The state hockey tournament in St. Paul?
Not quite -- there were only 16 teams there. The bigger tourney is the robotics competition in Duluth.
"In hockey, you're competing against your competitors. You're like, 'Oh, man, I really hate him,' and in robotics it's like, 'Oh, man, I love you guys, you have such a cool robot!' " said Emilia Skogen of Herobotics from Patrick Henry High School in Minneapolis.
The FIRST Robotics Competition at the Duluth Entertainment Convention Center is a subset of an organization that has grown to include one of the largest high school programs in the state.
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Everyday Minnesotans may not know much about FIRST. For participants in a FIRST Robotics team, having an elevator speech is essential for helping outsiders understand the program. A hockey player would rarely have to explain what a body check is.
Yet there are now more high school FIRST Robotics teams in Minnesota than high school hockey teams. FIRST has grown exponentially in the state since the original teams began here. The Green Machine from Edina started in 2005 and started out in the founding member's kitchen.
Other teams, such as KnightKrawler from Irondale High School in Mendota Heights, started with a single person passionate about FIRST and have grown substantially. Through the spirit of FIRST, experienced teams are now influential in helping others start their own teams.
Minnesota has more robotics teams than Texas, and only Michigan and California have more. Yet even with this disproportionate presence, FIRST still struggles to get recognition in this hockey-obsessed state. Could it someday overtake hockey?
"Never," said Hank Bemlott of Silver Bay's Mariner Robotics.
But another competitor says it could.
"Yeah, totally, absolutely. It's going to be bigger than hockey, no problem," said Sam Heine of Saber Robotics at Franklin High School.
He lives in Wisconsin.
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Kyle Schlichting is a member of Eagan High School's Blue Twilight team.
