ROBERT PIERCE
• Leader & Times
This weekend saw plenty of fun things for people to do in the Liberal community, among them the start of International Pancake Day and Homecoming at Seward County Community College.
The Seward County Activity Center had its own fun Saturday with many young people taking part in the annual Southwest Kansas First LEGO League Tournament there.
Liberal Recreation Robotics Coordinator Michelle Webber said things went well from the start of Saturday’s fun, as judging started in the morning and robot tables in progress in the early afternoon.
“Teams all showed up on time,” she said. “Coaches are on the ball. The kids looked great. It’s really coming together well. We have teams here from Texas, Colorado and all over Kansas.”
Webber has been a coach with FLL for 10 years, but this was her first year running the Liberal competition. She added after a few years of up and down numbers in robotics, those numbers are starting to climb again.
“We’re starting to see more teams and more interest once again,” she said. “COVID messed us up pretty good, so we’re recovering from that. We have 20 challenge teams, 12 explorer teams and even two discover, which are our under 6. We’re having some pretty good growth there, and next year, I’m hoping we can hit 30 challenge teams and 20 explorer and keep it growing.”
The COVID-19 pandemic has been gone for a few years, and Webber said rebuilding interest locally in robotics came rather quickly following the pandemic.
“The first one after COVID was real slim, and now, we’re starting to get a good number of teams back and returning teams,” she said. “Almost every team that’s here this year is a returning team.”
As with many, Webber feels technology is the way of the future, and robotics is the perfect field for those who came to Saturday’s tournament.
“With these kids coming in, they’re showing their ability to build, to engineer, to code,” she said. “This is super important for the future and for the possibilities of them getting into a career later. They’re getting a taste of it now.”
The championship team from Saturday now gets a chance to go to the First LEGO League Florida Sunshine Invitational this summer in Daytona Beach, Fla.
Overall, Webber said she was quite pleased with Saturday’s event.
“The turnout was great,” she said. “We’ve got a lot of parents, a lot of community members in to watch. It’s really growing, and I’m hoping next year, we’ll have an even bigger community crowd come in and see us.”
