Thirty-two robotics teams from schools as far away as Fresno converged to compete at the Mark Richardson Center for Technical Education on Feb. 7, and three local teams qualified for the state championship.
The inaugural “Hearts and Gears” Vex Robotics tournament was sponsored by the Santa Maria Joint Union High School District.
This year, the district has added robotics to all the high schools and there are over 20 teams.
“I am very proud of our eight PVHS teams. It was a great opportunity to have this competition in Santa Maria as it gave my students’ families and friends a chance to see where they (the students) have poured their hearts and souls into this year,” said Laurie Geronimo, Pioneer Valley coach.
Santa Maria High school added five teams this year.
“Our Saints have developed a strong bond with each other and they now challenge each other, given the fact that they also go up against each other in competitions,” said SMHS coach Antonio Conango.
A Pioneer Valley team won two awards, one for skills champion and the other for tournament champion.
“We put in a lot of hard work every single day and this competition showed that it really paid off. Beyond competing, this event gave us the chance to meet and learn from so many different teams.
“Sharing engineering ideas, talking strategy, and just connecting with people who love robotics made the experience even more meaningful,” said Pioneer student Bernadette Bolusan.
Vex designs the competitions to promote cooperation among competitive teams in order to model the goals of the engineering industry.
“If we are going to bring manufacturing back, we are going to need a lot of engineers, and especially engineers with diverse backgrounds that might see problems and solutions differently due to their unique life experiences,” added Delta coach Jeff Cooper.
The Pioneer Valley team formed an alliance and shared the tournament championship with Delta High School. Alliances compete 2 vs 2 in a game titled “Push Back.”
“I spent hundreds of hours building and programming my robot along with my team members since last August. But, I have been learning about structures, gear boxes, gear ratios, drivetrains, and how to program in Python since last school year.
“At some point I knew there was too much invested in my learning, my teammates, and the robot to go back, the only outcome was to prove to people what we can do,” said Brendan Perez, Delta lead driver and programmer for the tournament dhampions.
Another team from Delta also won the Create Award for their unique and innovative solutions to the game’s challenges.
Righetti High School also had a team qualify for the state championship for design.
“This award reflects the creativity, and perseverance of our students. The Design Award at the Hearts and Gears Tournament is a testament to how our team took on engineering challenges, collaborated effectively, and turned ideas into innovation,” said Shiffa Iqbal, Righetti coach.
The RECF foundation sponsors the Vex Robotics Competition. There are approximately 20,000 teams competing in this division in over 50 countries. Vex is the largest and fastest growing robotics competition in the world.
The State Regional Championship will be held at California State University, Bakersfield March 13-14.
Originally written by: Kenny Klein
Source: Santa Maria Times
Published on: 11 February 2026
Link to original article: Local robotics teams converge for comp, 3 qualify for state championship
