The Bayfield High School TSA team traveled to the national conference at the Gaylord Convention Center after earning top honors at the Colorado TSA state competition. The team’s Level 4 Engineering group — seniors Wyatt Hefner, Parker Perkerewicz and Reese Appenzeller — won the state robotics championship before going on to finish 10th in robotics at nationals.
For TSA advisor Brian McDonagh, seeing students earn recognition on a national stage was a memorable moment after months of design work, testing and improvement.
“It was a tremendous honor to see our students recognized on the national stage” McDonagh said. “It was a professional highlight for me.”
The national placement was a first for Bayfield High School TSA, but McDonagh said the value of the experience extended beyond the results.
“Competing at the national level provides students with valuable perspective and experience,” he said. “It strengthens their resumes, builds character, and helps them grow both personally and professionally.”
A second robotics team, made up of Tyler Berry, Taj Houpt, Kylynd Parrish and Julian Polanco, earned second place at state. Bayfield students also claimed a state championship in animatronics. The team included Berry, Houpt, Parrish, Polanco and Riley Murphy. In addition to the team’s competition results, Bayfield High School TSA received the Gold Chapter of Excellence Award at the state competition, one of only four chapters in Colorado to earn the recognition.
All eight students qualified to represent Colorado at nationals, giving them the opportunity to meet competitors from across the country, see the expectations of national-level technical events and experience Washington, D.C. Six of the eight students graduated this year, and McDonagh noted that the three students who placed at nationals are now in college studying engineering.
Projects built from the ground up
A key part of the team’s success was the students’ commitment to designing and building their projects themselves. McDonagh said many competitors at nationals used kits, and those projects were mostly built using provided instructions, while Bayfield’s entries were completely designed and built from the ground up.
“Almost every other entry at nationals was built using a kit and instructions,” he said. “Ours was one of only three or four designed completely from scratch.”
That independent approach offered a competitive advantage, but McDonagh said the deeper benefit was educational. Students had to work through complicated engineering concepts, make design decisions, solve problems and improve their projects through repeated testing and iteration.
“Our students demonstrated an exceptional level of dedication throughout the year, continually refining their projects in preparation for nationals,” McDonagh said. “They consistently went above and beyond, investing significant time outside of class, including evenings and weekends, to ensure their projects were competition-ready.”
The work also required persistence. TSA competition requirements change from year to year, so students cannot simply repeat a previous project. They must evaluate the new challenge, rethink their designs and rebuild to meet the updated specifications.
“If you expect to keep advancing, you have to improve your project consistently,” McDonagh said.
That process reflects the broader value of TSA, which gives students opportunities to develop teamwork, project management, communication, creative problem-solving and the ability to explain and present technical work to judges. These are skills that can carry into college, technical training and careers in engineering and technology.
The trip to Washington, D.C., also gave students time to experience some of the nation’s museums and landmarks. A visit to the National Air and Space Museum was a unanimous choice, McDonagh said, and the group also visited the National Museum of the American Indian and the National Museum of American History.
“It was extremely rewarding to organize and facilitate these experiences for our students,” he said. “It was an experience they will never forget.”
For students interested in engineering and technology, the trip provided an opportunity to connect their classroom and competition work with the broader world of science, innovation and history.
“The kids represented themselves, their families, the school and our whole state with pride,” McDonagh reported. To see video of Bayfield High School’s TSA students in action on the national stage, click on the following links - Robotics Team 1 and Robotics Team 2.
Years of learning and community support
The students’ accomplishments were built on more than a single year of competition preparation. McDonagh credited the parents who encouraged their children’s interests, teachers and mentors who helped students develop foundational academic and technical skills, and school and district administrators who supported the program.
The team also received important help from local businesses and community members as it worked to raise the funds needed for travel to Washington, D.C. National competition is an expensive undertaking, and community support helped the students reach their fundraising goal.
“We are extremely grateful to our sponsors,” McDonagh said. “It costs a lot of money to send these students, and when the students reached out to the community, our community showed incredible support.”
Among the supporters were 636 Main Ave., SWAG, Kenneth LeRoy, Hefner Construction, Mrs. and Mr. Guy, Crystal Boutique, True Value, Performance Auto, Wells Group and Old West Cafe.
McDonagh said that support — financial and otherwise — helped make the trip possible and showed students that their community was behind them. That sort of support will be needed as the program looks to continue its newly created tradition of excellence.
With six of the eight national competitors graduating last spring, the program is entering a rebuilding phase. Future teams will face new competition requirements and the challenge of developing projects that meet those expectations, while building on the experience and example of the students who came before them.
McDonagh sees that legacy as one of the most important outcomes of the season.
“They’ve left a legacy for other students to step into, and they’ve inspired them,” he said. “These students put Bayfield on the map, and they raised the bar for other Bayfield students to reach.”
For Bayfield High School TSA, the first national placement marks an important milestone. Just as importantly, it demonstrates what students can accomplish when they commit to learning challenging skills, work through problems, support one another and receive encouragement from their families, educators and community.
The team’s success offers a strong foundation for the next group of Wolverines ready to take on the challenge.
