Drone soccer players compete in South Korea

BY JOHN RENFROW JRENFROW@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

In Incheon, South Korea, ying orbs whistle, buzz and clash in the air in an e ort to glide through hoops for points. If you’ve ever seen Harry Potter, it’s a lot like a remote-controlled, electric version of Quidditch.

e increasingly popular sport is drone soccer. Students representing Westminster High School traveled for an international battle of aerospace skill in the FIDA World Drone Soccer Championships, which hosted more than a dozen international teams between May 17-20.

Four students from WHS paired up with four SkyBlazers from Cherry Creek —who nished second nationally in 2023. ey make up the U.S. National Team. e hybrid team ofColoradans nished thirdin Incheon in what is essentially the World Cup of drone soccer.

Recently, the team hosted South Korean players for a friendly competition at the Colorado Convention Center. But when the championships kicked o in South Korea, the friendliness faded and things got real.

“As you’re preparing for the matches, it’s kind of friendly because everyone is trying to help each other out, especially if you don’t have the right supplies at the right time,” said Helen Tran, a WHS junior and keeper for the U.S. National Team. “But once you’re on that oor, and about to face them, it’s really competitive and it’s like ‘We’re on opposite sides right now. You’re my enemy.’”

Drone soccer is the only educational robotics competition that is also an internationally sanctioned team sport by the World Air Sports Federation.

Here’s how it works: two teams of ve players compete against one another at the same time. Each team has a keeper, a striker, and three defenders. e idea is to protect your own goal and y the striker into the other team’s hoop to score. the international stage, and WHS has been growing its program for three years. ing. “I’m interested in doing aerospace engineering [also]. I never expected to go to South Korea, I just wanted to get involved in ying drones.”

But students don’t just y the drones. ey must build, repair, and maintain them. ere are three three-minute sets, two out of three seals a victory. Between sets, there is a three-to- ve-minute period for modifying and repairing any potential damage.

“ e goal is to build aerospace programs and career pathways using this fun sport as an introduction program,” Sanders said.

“ ey’re kind of like a Formula 1 team working really well together,” Kyle Sanders, vice president of development for U.S. Drone Soccer, said. “It’s really the communication and teamwork that you see in professional aviation, working on airplanes or preparing for operations.” e sport is just now gaining traction outside of South Korea, Sanders said, where it’s been popular since 2015. But slowly, other countries are coming along. e U.S. National Team is only in its rst competitive year on

Lottie Wilson, the career and technical education advisor at WHS, called it the gami cation of aerospace education.“ ey’re building them. ey’re programming them. ey’re engineering them. ey’re doing it all,” Wilson said. “It’s denitely getting kids hooked into aerospace education through gami cation.”

It’s been a surreal experience for the students, who can polish their skills and meet new people in a fun, brand new environment that’s loved drone soccer for years.

“I hope I get to keep doing this. It’s really fun,” said senior Luis Lechuga, who is attending Metropolitan State University in the fall to study mechanical engineer-

Lechuga and the other seniors in Incheon opted to miss their own graduation to make the trip. Being able to share this experience with like-minded students from all over the world has opened new ways of thinking about aviation and aerospace science, Tran said, and they’ve picked up some tricks from the Korean players along the way.

“I’m able to learn how to communicate, especially with a language barrier. We’re still able to communicate and share ideas with each other, and basically improve together,” Tran said. “It’s a really good and bene cial way to network. I’ve been able to befriend them through this shared passion, and so it’s just really cool.”