Boosting Engineering, Science and Technology kick-off at St. Mary’s University commenced on Saturday, Sept. 6. When kick-off started, the robotics team saw a video of the new game for this year, factoids, the field, all upcoming dates and a familiar face.

“We learned as much as we could about the game, especially the field that we will be playing on,” senior robotics president Eric Barnard said. 

The San Antonio BEST kick-off started with going over a slideshow of high-level rules and robot constraints. Then, the main show: the physical field.

Even with a good turn-out, there was one among the crowd of people there for the team that stuck out.

“Steven Brown, class of 2024, came back to mentor the team,” robotics team sponsor Mr. Louis Cavallaro said. 

With Hill country Alum Steven Brown showing up at kick-off, there were many emotions running through the team.

 “I think the best part was having the opportunity to view the full game field and beginning to discuss different strategies to gain the most points,” Barnard said. 

Many new and old members came to SA BEST kick-off  but one had people taking double takes as the founder of the robotics team rolled up.

 “I feel proud and humbled that one of the founding members of D.A.D.S. has the time in his busy schedule to help the next generation of robot enthusiasts,” Cavallaro said.

But even with Brown showing up at kick-off there was another big part of kick-off

 “We definitely had a major turnout of our school’s members,” Barnard said. “I think we were even the largest group at kick-off.”

Some of the upcoming dates for SA BEST are demo day on Oct. 26, SA BEST marketing set up on Nov. 1 and SA BEST game day on Nov. 2.