MUKWONAGO, Wis. — Robotics teams from across the Midwest were busy Sunday in the Mukwonago High School gymnasium, competing in an offseason FIRST Robotics competition. 

“The goal of this robot specifically, we’re trying to play defense against robots that are shooting into the upper and lower hub that we call it,” explained Ryder Bendixen, a senior at Mukwonago High School, and part of the school’s robotics team. 

The competition is just for fun. It doesn’t matter how his team places, or affects their rankings for the regular season qualifiers. 

In a sense, it’s like a preseason Green Bay Packers football game. 

“So, these offseason events are strictly run for fun,” Bendixen said. “Getting these people out here, they enjoy it, we enjoy it.”

Even though it’s just for fun, there is a lot of work that goes into getting their robots ready for competition, from coding to execution. 

“It takes a long time,” Bendixen said. “It’s uncountable hours.”

It was also countless hours to get Mukwonago High School ready to host this offseason event for FIRST Robotics. 

Twenty teams from schools across the Midwest, including schools from Wisconsin, Illinois and Minnesota, competed in the gym at Mukwonago High School, the first time they held an offseason event in Wisconsin.

Alexis Wangard, a Mukwonago senior, said the planning started before the school year ended. 

“We got the idea more towards may that we really wanted to have a premiere offseason event in Wisconsin for FIRST robotics teams, and we decided to take the initiative and start the event ourselves,” Wangard said. 

That is big, not just for Mukwonago’s robotics teams, but for other local schools as well. 

Since the event is open to the public, they’re able to showcase just how fun these events can be. 

This is FIRST. This is robotics," Wangard said. “And how can you grow? It’s not just about robotics, there is much more you can do.”

Despite it being an offseason event, Bendixen said teams used it as a way to get ready for the season, which is just around the corner. 

“They keep us completely in tune,” Bendixen said. “A lot of our new students get the competition feel. There’s a lot of stress that goes into it, and it’s good to get the first time jitters out of it.”

Bendixen, Wangard, and their teammates hope Mukwonago can keep holding this event, and put the school on the map for Wisconsin’s premiere FIRST Robotics offseason competition for years to come.