ATEMS

More than 35 teams from across the state competed last Saturday (Feb. 24) at the Texas Region 5 VRC High School Championship at The LIFT, the largest robotics competition ever hosted at The LIFT, with 38 teams traveling to Abilene from the metroplex and west Texas. The teams competed not just for Region 5 Championship awards but also for coveted invitations to the VEX World Championships, a competition that boasts teams from more than 30 countries.

The event featured highly competitive and innovative robots competing as alliance teams and individually on the Skills field. The teams and robots in the competition were some of the best in the world, as evidenced by Robot 2029C from the AI & Robotics Academy in Plano, which finished the day with the highest Skills score not just at this contest but out of more than 11,000 teams worldwide.  ATEMS will send one team – Team 9871T – to the world VEX World Championships in April after earning an invitation to the championship meet, which will be April 28-30 at the Kay Bailey Hutchinson Convention Center in Dallas. This will be the second time an ATEMS Robotics team has qualified for the world championship event.

It wasn’t just the robots that shined last Saturday, however. The entire competition was a collaborative effort between LIFT Audio/Visual Production students and AISD-TV to provide a live stream and live video board feed for online spectators and in-person fans. Numerous parents, staff, and student volunteers helped put the event together, including LIFT Culinary students and members of the ATEAMS Booster Club, who prepared food and provided service for concessions.

More than 100 Abilene ISD students from ATEMS, Abilene High School, and Cooper High School competed at the SkillsUSA District 2 championships on Friday, Feb. 23, at Odessa College. Those students were competing against more than 800 other students from across West Texas for the right to move on to the state competition, April 3-6, in Corpus Christi. AISD will send 64 students to the state competition: 36 from ATEMS, 19 from Abilene High, and nine from Cooper. Those students qualified for the SkillsUSA state competition in carpentry, electrical trades, welding, graphic design, networking systems, computer programming, automotive, engineering, and cybersecurity. Some students qualified during skills competitions, while others qualified via projects made in class. Here’s a list of state qualifiers and their district awards.

The AISD Memorial Park honors the memory of deceased AISD students and staff who honorably served in the United States Armed Forces. The park is located on the grounds of Dyess Elementary School and includes a Veterans Memorial Wall commemorating the names of those who served. If you want to nominate a loved one who has passed away for memorialization on the district’s Veterans Memorial Wall, please click here to submit their information. If you’d like to search the AISD database for the 77 names that already have their names etched onto the wall, click here.

Fine Arts Roundup: The Youth Art Month display – which features numerous pieces of art created by students in Abilene ISD – continues through Friday, March 15, at The Grace Museum. Make sure to stop by and explore all the work our talented students are creating on campuses throughout the district. … Congratulations to Abilene High School Speech & Debate teacher Scott Stephens, who was named the 2024 National Speech & Debate Association (NSDA) Tall Cotton District New Coach of the Year Award. Stephens’ students nominated him for the award, and his peers selected him to receive it. … Alcorta Elementary School fourth-grade students will present their program next Thursday (March 7) at 9:30 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. in the cafeteria. … Students from across the district will perform in University Interscholastic League contests next week, from the Region 6 East Zone Concert and Sightreading Contest for band and orchestra to District One-Act Play to middle school pre-UIL contests. … Next Thursday (March 7) is Big Art Day in Abilene ISD. Big Art Day is an art event to raise awareness of art education and art as a creative force in communities on a BIG statewide scale. It is an attempt by the Texas Art Education Association (TAEA) to engage all art educators, their students, and communities in a single-day art event. Look for a detailed wrap-up of Big Art Day in the March 22 edition of the AISD Newsletter.

The Cooper Student Council – under the direction of Cooper English teacher Jimmy Pogue – will embark next Wednesday (March 6) on its 21st consecutive trip to Chinle, Arizona, for its annual Four Corners Service Learning Project. The group will return to Abilene on Monday, March 11, after four days of outreach to one of the most economically depressed communities in the country. Pogue and his group annually take a semi-truck trailer full of supplies to the people in Chinle. Over the previous 20 trips to the Navajo Nation, Pogue and his group have delivered more than 1 million pounds of clothes and food for the people in Chinle. This year’s group – 49 people, including Pogue, sponsors, and students – is carrying almost 50,000 pounds of supplies for the people in the area. Look on the Abilene ISD Facebook page on the evenings of March 6-11 for a daily wrap-up of the trip and in the March 22 AISD newsletter for a comprehensive story about the trip.

The AISD Impact Award honors district employees who make a positive difference at work and in the Abilene community. We need your help recognizing our teammates who give an exceptional effort to be a force for good in the lives of our students, staff, and neighbors. Anyone can nominate any AISD employee for this recognition! If you would like to submit someone’s name to be considered to receive an Impact Award at an upcoming Board of Trustees meeting, please fill out the nomination form at the link below. You can also use the link to learn about previous Impact Award recipients. Click here to nominate an outstanding colleague to receive the AISD Impact Award!

AISD Athletics Roundup: The Abilene High boys soccer team strengthened its hold on a potential playoff bid Tuesday night with a 2-1 win over Cooper in the soccer version of the Crosstown Showdown. The win pushes the Eagles to 5-2-1 in District 4-5A play and into second place behind Lubbock Monterey (8-0-0). … Cooper is third at 4-3-1 but still in control of a playoff spot. Lubbock Cooper is 3-3-2 after a loss to Monterey on Tuesday. The AHS and Cooper boys’ teams will be in action tonight (March 1), and both will play at Shotwell Stadium. Cooper will take on Wylie at 5 p.m., followed by AHS hosting Monterey at 7 p.m. … On the girls’ side, Abilene High and Cooper battled to a 1-1 draw Tuesday night that left AHS at 2-4-2 and still on the outside looking in at a playoff spot. The Lady Eagles are in fifth place with four matches to play, and they have a huge match tonight (March 1) at Lubbock Monterey at 5 p.m. The Lady Plainsmen are 3-3-1 and in fourth place in the district standings, one game ahead of the Lady Eagles. AHS will take on Monterey, last-place Lubbock High, and second-place Lubbock Coronado in its next three matches before closing the regular season on March 12 at home against Lubbock Cooper. The defending district champions might need to win out to reach the postseason. … The Lady Cougars, meanwhile, are 1-6-1 in the league and will be at Wylie tonight at 7 p.m. to play the district-leading Lady Bulldogs, who are 6-0-1 in district play. … The Cooper and Abilene High baseball teams are back in tournament play this weekend, with Cooper playing in the Crowley Tournament and Abilene High in the Tournament of Champions in Midland. … AHS picked up a 9-4 win over Brownwood on Tuesday to get to 4-2 on the season going into the start of the tournament. … The Eagles split a pair of games Thursday, falling to former district foe Odessa High, 5-4, before bouncing back to knock off El Paso Eastwood, 3-1. The Eagles will play Midland High on Friday and Midland Legacy and Plainview on Saturday. … Cooper, meanwhile, was 1-4 going into Thursday’s play where it split two games against Mansfield Summit (11-3 win) and Joshua (14-4 loss). Cooper will play North Crowley (5:30 p.m.) and Crowley immediately following on Friday. … The Abilene High softball team knocked off Fredericksburg on the road Tuesday night, 5-4, to improve to 8-6. … The Lady Eagles split their first two games at the DFW Turf Wars Tournament on Thursday, falling to Denton Guyer, 4-1, in the tournament opener before bouncing back with a 5-1 win Thursday night over Mansfield. They will play Early and Flower Mound on Friday before finishing up with Bushland and L.D. Bell on Saturday. … The Cooper softball team knocked off Stanton on Tuesday, 9-6, to get to 5-8 going into its tournament in Iowa Park this weekend. The Lady Cougars opened the tournament Thursday by sweeping Canyon (3-2) and Graham (11-9), and they will return to action Friday against Brock and Iowa Park before finishing the tournament Saturday against Henrietta and Canyon Randall. … Abilene High freshman baseball player George Ferguson – a righthanded pitcher and infielder – is currently the third-ranked player in the state in the Class of 2027 by Perfect Game. The top-ranked freshman in the state is Lash Henderson, a righthanded pitcher who plays at Prestonwood Christian Academy. The second-ranked player in front of Ferguson is Levi Leathers, a righthanded pitcher/infielder from Axtell High School in Axtell, Texas, just north of Waco. Ferguson is on the radar of professional scouts because of his size (6-4, 210 pounds) and velocity (already throwing his fastball in the low 90s at just 15 years old).

The Abilene High and Cooper boys’ basketball teams were well-represented on the All-District 4-5A team, which was announced earlier this week. First-team selections from the third-place Eagles were Brooks Reese, Demarco Upshaw, and Connell Colley, while the Cougars were represented on the first team by Kam Gray and Jordan Willis. Upshaw was also voted the district’s Defensive Player of the Year. Second-team selections from Cooper were Eric Tonche and Jaden Carrillo, while second-team Eagles were Jatyran Smith and Eric Salazar. Honorable mention selections from Abilene High were Mario Berry, Josh Melson, and Tyson Thompson, while Cayson Lockridge was an honorable mention selection for Cooper. Academic all-district selections from Cooper were Willis, Tonche, Eliel Buntu, Jaden Carrillo, Nhoj Henry, Sushil Darji, TJ Harrell, Dylan Josselet, Aiden Shepard, and Mazin Lawrence. Academic all-district selections from Abilene High were Reese, Melson, Thompson, Colley, Salazar, Brenner Paul, Carter Wyatt, Bryce Neves, Sawyer Moss, Payton Shawver, and Myles Osborne.