Cumby High School Robotics Teams Wins Nationals
Cumby High School Robotics Team
The Cumby High School Robotics competed at the National Robotics Meet on April 7-9 at Council Bluffs, Iowa and won first in the nation. Eight students competed, including Landon Mabe, Preston Salinas, Brent Brewer, Jacob Simonek, Hannah Jarvis, Presley Clampitt, Jesslin Bond, and Lacy Jacobs. “Nationals was pretty amazing, especially since we’re all best friends,” Robotics student Hannah Jarvis said. “Three of our guys are seniors, and just being with them for their last robotics match was pretty amazing.”
The robotics competition is sponsored by Vex Robotics, who annually releases a new game that require teams to design a robot to play. The theme of the national competition was “Nothing But Net,” where teams had to construct a robot that could pick up and fire foam balls into nets on each side of the enclosed space. “Whenever you’re building a robot, You have to build it to fit the game,” Robotics student Landon Mabe said. “We built the robot in three stages. We started with the drive, which is how it gets around, then we worked on the intake, which is how it picks up the foam balls off the field, then finally the firing mechanism, which we like to call the ‘hammer’. After we built the drive, the intake, and then the firing mechanism, we have to program the robot to incorporate all of the motors that make it move and then hook it up to the remote. We had to document all of this in our Robotics Engineering Notebook, which we kept track of throughout the year. Everything we did, everytime we did something to it, we had to record it in the notebook.”
The primary component used to pick up and then fire the foam balls was rubber bands. According the Robotics student Jacob Simmonek, the robot would pick up the foam balls with two rubber bands tied to gears and then carry the ball to the firing mechanism using a series of chains. Then a square of plexi-glass would nudge the foam ball into the “hammer” which would trigger a light sensor that activates the “hammer” in order to launch the foam ball into the net.
The Cumby robotics team was part of an “alliance” with two other schools, making for three official national champion teams. The two other schools in Cumby’s alliance were from Galveston, TX, named 400X and 400S. “We got to say, to their credit, 400X and 400S had amazing robots and were cool people,” Landon said.
The Cumby robotics team not only won the national championship, but also the “Design Award,” an award which is given only to one team out of the over 400 entries at the High School, Middle School and Open divisions for the most creative and the most time-consuming robot design. “We’re more proud of that than we are even of winning,” Landon said.
The team was lead by robotics teacher Lee Gifford.
Cumby High School Robotics Team
Animal of the Week: Heidi
Heidi
Heidi is a two to three year old boxer mix that was brought into the Animal Shelter after she began following a cyclist down the road two weeks ago. “She followed some guy riding his bike down to the police station and he got concerned so he called the police,” Animal Shelter Officer Barbi Blanch said. “They brought her in a couple of Sunday’s ago. Nobody has claimed her or said anything about missing her, so here she is.”
Heidi is already spayed and shows signs of previous training and is most likely house-broken, based on her behavior in the Shelter. At the off-site adoption last weekend, April 9, the Animal Shelter officers discovered that Heidi had previous owners. “We did find out recently that she had an owner at one time,” Officer Blanch said. “When she was at the Atwoods for the off-site, somebody recognized her. We don’t know who recognized her or who the owner is.”
Heidi is a sweet and playful dog, according to Officer Blanch, and is also shy of strangers. She plays with other shelter dogs her size and is not bothered by the presence of cats. “She does like playing with toys,” Officer Blanch said. “She’s got a squeaky toy that she had at the off-site and she enjoyed it. She’s a little playful and she’ll walk with you, maybe even go jogging with somebody who likes to jog, but as far as being around people, she’s fairly calm.”
Heidi has tested negative for heart worms and due to the fact that she is already spayed, her adoption fee is only $5o.00. Heidi will be at the off site adoption this weekend, April 16 at Atwoods from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Hot and Humid Issues; Coming Events
Mario Villarino DVM, Ph.D.
Hopkins County Extension Agent for Ag and NR
1200B Houston Street
Sulphur Springs, Texas 75482
903-885-3443
by Mario Villarino
Just as I started thinking about this week notes, and as I was watching rain on and off in Sulphur Springs, I recalled the issue related to molds growing in our crops. The critical part of a healthy plant environment is for the rain cycles to have a chance to dry out. Although plants enjoy watering, certainly too much of it can become a problem. A good optimal environment in the ground is to have an appropriate air to water ratio so roots can air out. With water logged soils, this does not happen, so gardens and lawns will suffer because extremely wet weather followed by hot and dry will certainly alter the schedule putting a toll into our already tight schedule of warm days before extreme heat. Insects will also respond to hot-humid weather proliferating. One of the most common problems during extreme wet days are fire ants infestations. Since water occupies air underground, fire ants have the tendency to emerge from it. According to Michael Merchant, Urban Extension Entomologist for Texas A&M AgriLife Extension, among the common questions he receives about fire ants include questions on how to control them within vegetable gardens, compost bins and (increasingly) chicken coops. “My favorite tool for fire ant control is use of fire ant bait broadcast over the entire home lawn and landscape. This is an inexpensive and environmentally friendly way to keep fire ants away. However, the most commonly available baits do not allow direct use in vegetable gardens or many areas with livestock. I suppose the EPA is concerned about baits falling into vegetables, like lettuce, and being directly consumed by people or livestock. Fortunately, there is a simple alternative.In most cases the simplest way to get fire ants out of a small- to medium-sized garden, compost bin or chicken coop is to apply a fast acting fire ant bait around the outside perimeter of the site. This should be a legal application for all fire ant baits (check your label to be sure), and since fire ants do not pay much attention to garden edges or fences, the inside ants will readily pick up bait from the surrounding ground. Yes, the bait does end up inside the garden or livestock area anyway, but only inside the fire ant nests, where there is no risk of it being picked up by chickens or contaminating leafy vegetables. For larger gardens or crop and pasture land where perimeter treatments might be less effective, several fire ant baits may be used. Spinosad and abamectin-containing baits generally allow garden application (e.g., Clinch®, Fertilome® Come and Get It, and Payback®). In addition, Extinguish® (but not Extinguish Plus) fire ant bait containing methoprene has a label that allows use on cropland, pastures and rangeland. Extinguish® is an excellent long-term control option, especially in larger sites; but it is too slow for most gardeners, requiring approximately two months for maximum control. Avoid applying any of these baits to areas where poultry or other fowl are actively foraging. In addition to baits, mounds can be treated directly with any of several mound drenches labeled for use in gardens. Alternatively, ant colonies inside a vegetable garden, chicken coop or compost bin can sometimes be successfully removed with a shovel and a straight-sided 5 gallon bucket. To keep the fire ants from climbing the shovel handle or escaping the bucket, liberally dust both shovel handle and bucket insides with talcum powder. The talc will keep fire ants in for a short while. Shovel quickly and go deep to attempt to remove the queen(s). Once the nest is contained in the bucket, it can be dispatched by flooding with soapy water. For more information in this or any other agricultural topic please contact the Hopkins County Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Office by calling 903-885-3443 or email me at [email protected].
Coming up:
Hopkins County Master Gardeners Annual Plant Swap, Saturday April 23, 2016 9:00 AM to 12 Noon at the Bright Star Veterinary Clinic Parking lot, 744 Gilmer Street, Sulphur Springs, Texas. The Hopkins County Master Gardeners will welcome all who are interested in gardening whether they have something to swap or not.
Texas Watershed Steward Workshop, May 6, 2016, Rains County Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Office, 410 Tawakoni Drive (highway 276) Emory Texas. Workshop with overview of water quality and watershed management in Texas. CEU’s for Private applicators and others. Register by calling 979-862-4457 or http://tws.tamu.edu.
Homeowner Maintenance of Aerobic Treatment Units, May 16, 2016 at the Hopkins County Extension Office located at 1200B Houston Street, Sulphur Springs, Texas. $100 registration. Call 903-885-3443.
SSHS Volleyball Coach Moves to Denton Braswell
Wildcats Head Football Coach and Athletic Director Greg Owens is once again in the market for a Head Volleyball Coach. Volleyball Coach Allison Irvin and her husband Football Assistant Coach Johnny Irvin both had resignations accepted by the Sulphur Springs School Board at Monday night’s meeting. Ms. Irvin has been hired as the Head Volleyball Coach at Denton Braswell, a new school set to open in August. Coach Johnny Irvin is said to be looking for a position in the Denton area.
Coach Owens has hired five volleyball coaches in his ten plus years as Sulphur Springs Athletic Director. Assistant Coach David Carrillo, also Head Softball Coach, was elevated to the Head Volleyball Coaching position at one time. Jerrod Hammack, also Head Baseball Coach, is also a volleyball assistant.
Blackmon is Regional Medalist
Wildcats’ golfer Brody Blackmon, an Ole Miss commit, won the Regional Golf Tournament played at the Rockwall Golf and Athletic Club Monday and Tuesday. He’ll play in the State Tournament later this month. Blackmon shot a two-round 140, four under par, at the Regional Tournament.
Wildcats Golf Coach Ross Funk said Blackmon had trouble finishing the first day and shot a one-over par 73. The second round Blackmon fired a five-under 67. He also won the District Tournament with a two-round 140 on the same course. Blackmon and two other golfers not on teams advancing to state qualified for the State Tournament.
The Wildcats’ golf team was unable to finish as one of the top three teams at regional to qualify for the State Tournament. They missed out by 24 strokes. The Wildcats shot 317 on Monday and 321 on Tuesday. For the Wildcats, Alex Motes had a first round 73 and then a second round of 81. Matt Calhoun had rounds of 82 and 85. Carter Lewis had a 92 and 88 and Caleb Lewis shot 89 and 94.
Lady Cats Softball Moved to Mount Pleasant Thursday; Track at Pine Tree for District
The Lady Cats’ softball game against Mt. Pleasant scheduled for 4:30 p.m. Wednesday has been postponed a second time due to a wet Lady Cat Park. Lady Cats Softball Coach David Carrillo said the game would now be played Thursday at 5:30 p.m. in Mt. Pleasant. The game was originally scheduled to be played Tuesday evening at 6 p.m. The Lady Cats, after a disappointing 4-3 record in the first half of district play, have won three games in a row in the second half giving them a 7-3 record. Mt. Pleasant won by a single run when the two teams played back on March 18 in Mt. Pleasant. The Lady Cats season record is 23-5. Once again no softball in Sulphur Springs Wednesday. The game has been rescheduled for 5:30 p.m. Thursday in Mt. Pleasant
Meanwhile the Wildcats and Lady Cats’ track teams are competing in the District Tract Meet in Pine Tree Wednesday. It will wrap up Thursday. Athletes will be attempting to qualify for an Area Meet at Whitehouse next week.
Salvation Army Disaster Training
There are natural disasters happening each year in the state of Texas. From floods, forest fires, hail storms to tornados Texans need to be prepared. It is not a matter of if, but when a disaster happens in a Texas community. Disaster training is vital when it comes to protecting the lives of those in Texas communities.
The Salvation Army State Disaster Training Team has scheduled free training in Sulphur Springs at the Trinity Harvest Church, 1150 Shannon Road East this Saturday, April 16 from 8 am through 2 pm. When completing this one day training course, you will be certified to assist with multiple types of natural disasters in your community and in the state of Texas. Lunch will be provided for each attendee.
Today is the last day for registration. To register, call Joshua Moseley by 5 p.m. at 682-300-2404 or call Sharon Wilson at 214-274-0514. Wilson is Regional Representative for the Salvation Army, Texas Division.
Community Chest Honors Board Members for Lifetime of Service
Hopkins County Community Chest recognized board members Imogene Jacobs, Fred Dial, Valinda Hathcox, and Joe Pogue for leadership and vision in a lifetime of service to the organization. Radina Adams, President made the presentation Wednesday morning following a board meeting at Community Chest, 217 Linda Drive in Sulphur Springs. Lucy Vaden, previous Executive Director of Community Chest, was a special guest for the event.
Left to right, Lucy Vaden, previous Executive Director, Valinda Hathcox, Fred Dial, and Imogene Jacobs. Not present, Joe Pogue.
Matthews Named Interim County Fire Chief
Hopkins County Fire Marshall Mike Matthews will supervise operations for the county fire department following the resignation of Kevin Yates, who resigned Tuesday as Fire Chief here after having taken a Fire Chief position in Louisiana. Matthews will serve as interim Fire Chief for the county as a search for a new chief begins in the next couple of weeks, according to County Judge Robert Newsom.
Matthews is a Hopkins County native whose first full time fire-fighter job was with the county. He worked full-time with the Hopkins County Fire Department for 13 years prior to becoming a fireman in Longview. Currently, he is a driver engineer and paramedic for the Longview department and spends two (2) of every three (3) days in Hopkins County as Fire Marshall here. The third day is in Longview.
Matthews told KSST News that he will seek to bring some things back on track for the county fire department and for volunteers in the county. County Judge Newsom told KSST News that Matthews, who the judge has known since Matthews was a baby in his mother’s arms, has already unified the volunteer and paid fire departments in the county as they “…have rallied around Matthews”.
Matthews said that when he returns to the county Thursday, he will begin gathering a list of things that need to be done in the various departments, look over the county budget for fire departments, and examine any problems and/or issues faced by the volunteers and paid staff. Also on his list of duties is oversight of the day to day operations of the department and scheduling payroll. He stated he will serve as liaison between the fire departments and commissioners’ court.
The work as acting chief will be added to his current tasks of investigating structure and vehicle fires in the county, home inspections for foster parents, building inspections in the county, mapping fire hydrants for county fire departments and doing pre-planning on certain structures and areas where county firefighters could be called on in times of fire and/or emergency. Matthews stated that firefighters need to know the lay of the land as they begin to attack a fire.
Accident Closes I-30 Exit
An 18-wheel tractor-trailer rig carrying a load of watermelons overturned Tuesday morning at the I-30 exit near EZ Mart and the Best Western Motel on the east side of Sulphur Springs when the load shifted. Although the truck was set upright, the watermelons remained in the ditch. The exit was closed during cleanup.
