So much has been documented over the years about the rivalry between Becker and Big Lake High Schools — especially when it comes to sports. Sometimes the rivalry is akin to a sibling love/hate thing and sometimes it’s as vicious as cats and dogs.

 

With one exception.

 

Alex Jurek and the Becker robotics team approached Big Lake High School last year and implored they start a robotics team of their own. The school considered it, held an informational gathering headed by Jurek and the FRC 6709 Spudinc team was founded.

 

Instead of bringing the rookie team on board, then feeding them to the sharks, Jurek and his squad took Big Lake’s team under their wing from the start and began mentoring and partnering with the 6-to-8 member team.

 

After Big Lake was able to secure funding for a  team late last year, they realized they didn’t have the resources nor a home base to be able to brainstorm, design and build their robot for the 2017 season.

 

Rivalries aside, Jurek opened the doors to Becker’s industrial tech shop Saturday mornings and invited the Spudinc team to work alongside them.

 

Recently, at the Minne-Mini Regional at Prior Lake, both teams competed (Big Lake used NDSU’s 2016 robot) and walked away with awards — Big Lake took home the Inspiration Award and Becker took home the Gracious Professionalism Award along with finishing as semi-finalists.

 

Big Lake’s robotics coach, Daniel Weber, just gushes with appreciation for all that Jurek and his team has done for Spudinc.

 

“I love what they are doing for us,” said Daniel. “It’s refreshing to see two rival schools work together and for Becker to be so gracious with their facilities and tools to help us.”

 

Daniel’s son, Alexander, is the team’s captain and he is excited to be able to come to Becker each week and learn the routines of building a competition robot.

 

“Seven people showed up at the introduction last year and out of that, only three joined the team,” he said. “So we had to do a lot of recruiting to get our numbers up to 6-to-8.

But I think this will catch on over the next year or so and the numbers will grow.”

 

The Webers say — other than recruiting — the biggest struggle has been figuring out how to build the robot to do the things it is supposed to do in competition.

 

“With all the electrical and mechanical components you have to have and the software and hardware, it’s not an easy task,” said Daniel. “But anytime we have an issue or a question, Jurek and his kids are there to help us each and every time.”

 

Alexander says he thoroughly enjoys the build process of making the robot, but his passion falls with the conception and design.

 

“I like to have a plan and concept nailed down before getting my hands dirty,” he says. “Others are like, ‘yeah, let’s just do this and see if it works’. That’s not for me.”

 

The Spudinc squad used cardboard to conceptualize the robot, then started cutting aluminum and other pieces to form the machine. Their role in competition will be to scoop up “fuel cells” and deliver them to ally robots on the floor. After getting a taste for competition earlier this month at the Minne-Mini, the Spudinc crew is bubbling with anticipation on how their handiwork does come game time.

 

The hope for Big Lake and Spudinc is that students, families and friends latch on to the phenomenon of robotics and join the team to help make it grow. They’ll also be looking for sponsors to help them eventually set up their own workshop and storage place for their team somewhere in the Big Lake area.

 

“We’ll be going door-to-door as soon as the season ends to see if a business or two will sponsor us,” said Daniel. “We will be searching for a garage or a couple garages to set up shop that has heat and electricity. Right now we have a storage unit at the high school and that’s about it.”

 

And that makes him even more grateful for the generosity of the Becker Robotics team.

 

“We couldn’t have gotten this off the ground without the help of Alex (Jurek) and a his students and coaches,” said Daniel. “I hope robotics sticks around in Big Lake and grows  to some level of match to what Becker has.”