‘CoderCaneZ’ Celebrates Successful Season
The Jasper County Middle School (JCMS) “CoderCaneZ” Cyber Robotics team claimed second place in Region 3 nationwide while earning a spot in the Top 22 in the world in its first season of competition of the CoderZ Junior Training Camp. The training camp journey began in mid-October, when creating code took on a new concept for the local sixth through eighth graders.
Building functional code to drive a robot around virtual golf courses, skyscrapers, farms (imagine that!) through space dodging asteroids and manipulating mirrors to align laser beams, proved challenging and rewarding for this first time group. But they persisted, grew smarter, stronger, and unified as a solid team to represent Jasper County very well, said their instructor Maureen “Coach Mo” Ryan, JCMS Computer Science Educator.
Competition began in the preliminary stage from October 29-November 23 when JCMS faced off against schools from Alabama, Connecticut, Florida, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, and Oregon.
The CoderCaneZ captured fifth place out of 61 teams but later slipped to eleventh place when several key team members were placed under Covid-19 quarantine restrictions without home internet access. But the earlier diligent efforts proved to be enough to advance JCMS into the Group Stage of competition.
The Group Stage began November 29, with more obstacles and challenges to be met by the cyber robot. The CoderCaneZ dug in and rewrote code again, while competing in Group 11 (of 16 U.S. groups) against two Florida schools: St. Barnabas Episcopal (Deland) and Pahokee Middle (Pahokee) Schools and Inza Wood Middle from Wilsonville, Oregon. This win would advance the top two teams into the regional playoffs, set up like March Madness in basketball with 64 teams.
On December 8, JCMS won their group round with 700 points behind the wizardry of team members Robert Arizmendi, Lupita Garcia, Zoe Holcombe, Kinze Johnson, Savannah Martin, and James Sliger. Inza Middle followed with 430 points. JCMS’s outstanding score also landed the team in seventh place overall of all 16 groups/64 teams and secured a spot in the Top 32 playoffs.
This was an exciting accomplishment for CoderCaneZ as all matches were aired live on Twitch for worldwide viewing!
So, the CoderCaneZ went back to work, brainstorming several options incorporating the use of several sensors to fine tune their robot’s program.
JCMS quickly advanced with an easy win over Barrington Middle’s Bulldogs (New Hampshire) on December 17 to move into the “Sweet 16.”
“I told our whole team I was so proud of them, that persistence has merit. We didn’t quit, we never stopped trying to make our code better and our robot more successful. We are the ‘Canes, and we show up! This was very challenging!” said Coach Mo.
With just one day left to solidify their code before leaving school for winter break, final team captain Zoe Holcombe submitted the team’s code just moments before the bell rang for dismissal. And that proved good enough as on December 22, JCMS took on Hillside from Northville, Michigan, landing the win with a final score of 650-90. JCMS also had the highest score for the region during the Sweet 16 round.
The CoderCaneZ moved to the quarter finals on December 23, facing off against an old rival, “The Fearless Coders” of Inza Wood Middle School from back in the group rounds. But the JCMS CoderCaneZ prevailed, taking the win with a score of 500-350. This match turned out to be the highest scoring match of the day in the playoffs, while advancing JCMS to the semi-finals.
Later that afternoon, the CoderCaneZ team faced off against the Jr. Binary Bucs of The Benjamin School from Palm Beach, Fla. This proved to be a real nail biter until the last 30 seconds of the match when JCMS secured a platform to take the 400-200 win and move to the finals.
In the finals, the CoderCaneZ fought a tough match but could not secure the win against “CMTB” of Causey Middle School, Mobile, Ala., and ended their run with second place.
Coach Mo said, “This was an amazing run, and an outstanding show for the incredible minds and talents that exist within all of our students of Jasper County, Georgia! I share my pride in our JCMS CoderCaneZ with all our administrators, faculty and staff, knowing how hard this team collaborated and persisted throughout every challenge to the very end.
“We just set the bar high and look forward to the next season for our students. I am ready to start recruiting for our new team now! While many of these school systems were much larger and came into this competition with several teams, we came with just one unified group, and that was all we needed. We put JCMS on the map, and I know these teams will be watching for us in future competitions.”
Coach Mo also extended appreciation to their biggest fan, ScottiAnn Benton, as well as the JCMS & JCCS STEAM Initiative, for supporting the JCMS CoderCaneZ team.
The entire team includes Robert Arizmendi, Perla Bautista, Jace Campbell, Jackson Cheek, Jackson Connally, Grace DeGarmo, Owen Diaz, Colton Engel, Robert Faith, Jr., Guadalupe Garcia, Ceselie Gresham, Rebekah Hanson, Zoe Holcombe, Levi Hood, Bryson Jackson, Jr, Collyn Jenkins, Kinze Johnson, Alesha Jordan, ZaNiya Kelly, Kyla Levester, Kyle Levester, Ansleigh Lewis, Casidy Manning, Savanna Martin, Austin Mayes, Addyson Mercer, Rihanna Mitchell, Corey Rand, Hailey Roper, Riley Savage, Sarah Skinner, James Sliger, Stephanie Smith, Calleigh Stanley, Madelyn Taylor, Christopher White, and Dustin Young, Jr.