LEWISTON — More than 2,000 people throughout New England flocked to The Colisée on Saturday for the Pine Tree District FIRST Robotics Competition.

FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) is a nonprofit organization that promotes STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) at schools and in communities throughout the world.

The high school robotics program has students building, programming, promoting and fundraising to build robots that can perform tasks, such as collecting and stocking items.

The Pine Tree District competition is a qualifying event ahead of the New England FIRST District Championship, which is to be held in Springfield, Massachusetts, on April 3-6.

Teams from Lewiston and Jay were among 17 teams from Maine and 29 overall that were hoping to make the grade this weekend for the New England championship.

FIRST Senior Mentor Jamee Luce of Oakland and Steve Martin, a longtime mentor out of South Portland, said competitions place teams in “coopetition” against groupings of other teams. Teams are regularly switched around to teach competitors how to work together and give them an opportunity to learn more about their craft, Martin said.

Problem-solving, exploration, leadership and adversity are some of the big things that mentors drive home for competitors, Luce said.

“There’s a lot of other, what people call, 21st century skills, like leadership, teamwork, time management, project management and inclusivity,” Luce said. “There’s also what we call ‘gracious professionalism,’ which means we want our competitors to be at their very best … so that when you do win, you know you’re winning against everybody’s best.”

Another common point organizers, mentors and competitors bring up is that robotics teams involve more than coding and technical knowledge — teams are also expected to market and promote their teams in their communities and to run the financials, a good exercise in business practices. It involves many real-life skills beyond those of trade or formal education.

Mt. Blue High School senior Jack Cramer has been with the Jay-based Spruce Mountain High School and Farmington-based Mt. Blue High School team since his freshman year.

“This is a great way for high school students to learn skills that might help them in the future,” Cramer said, adding that 96% of students go to college or a tech program afterward. “It’s a really good builder for skills like communication skills, leadership skills, technical skills, even the business side of the team. It’s a really good program.”

Cramer said his team was running off two wins and a loss by 2 p.m. Saturday and hoping — while in 12th place overall at that point — to clinch a spot at the New England championship.

Lewiston Regional Technical Center team mentor Alex Willette said their 12-person team has come a long way since its 2020 debut in a season that didn’t pan out due to the COVID-19 outbreak. The team started out with a handful of seniors and just one freshman.

“We weren’t able to bring much knowledge over to our second year,” senior Logan Warren said. “It’s why we’ve been scouting (other teams’ strategies) and recruiting so much.”

Senior Judilson Ngola said he is constantly on the lookout for new members, and Willette continues to try and get special education students involved in a STEM program through Unified Robotics.

A few current teammates are investing time in middle school LEGO League teams — a similar youth STEM program — to keep the interest holding over until high school, according to Ngola.

“We want to involve the middle school students more, to spread our knowledge to get kids interested in joining the team,” he said.

Warren and classmate Matt Ashton are the team’s scouts, members who compile notes and data based on competitors’ performances. Despite its rocky debut, the team won the Pine Tree District competition in 2022 at Thomas College in Waterville, and finished in sixth place in 2023 at the New England championship.

Since competition rules and announcements do not come until weeks beforehand, it can mean a difficult road ahead for a well-performing robot — in the beginning of the 2023-24 season, LRTC had to rely heavily on defense to win matches while developing good offense, Willette said.

“This year started as a mess at the first competition,” Warren said. “We were averaging about four students at meetings for the first two or three weeks because some people can’t get rides. Then there was about a week or two like right before the first competition where everyone started showing up and we all put a ton of work and we got it working for our first competition.”

“Then we rocked it,” Ashton said.

Honora White joined the team in 2023, a year after the team’s top programmer, Omar Osman, died unexpectedly. With no previous knowledge of computer-assisted design, White now runs the programming and design of the robot.

Willette said White is the “star student.” The team members agreed.

“We persevered throughout build season in a way that honestly amazes me, and I’m not only proud of them,” Willette said, motioning to the four students, “But I’m especially proud of the students who put in not only the work to build the robot, but learning the skills that they needed to do it.”

The competition is scheduled to continue Sunday, with more qualification matches set to begin at 9:30 a.m. and the playoffs planned for 2 p.m.

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