Dixon High School and Reagan Middle School introduced drone soccer for the first time this year, and students are already scheduled to compete in this weekend's national championships.
DIXON, Ill. — Dixon high school and middle school students are reaching new heights this year by competing in drone soccer.
The sport is new to the area this year. Approximately 20 students belong to the junior high school team. High school teams are a little smaller. Each round is 3 minutes long and the student flies the drone in his 5v5. Each team has three defenders, one forward, and one striker. A striker is essentially a soccer ball. Once you pass through the hoop, you've reached the goal. The entire team must return to half-field to reset before the striker can score again.
“This is something we've been looking at for a few years now,” said Nick Hawes, coach at Reagan Middle School. “Then the stars kind of aligned and we were able to find a funding source and put this in place.”
“I always get lost and it's not easy to tell which one is mine, especially when everyone on the team is the same color,” said freshman Mason Schaefer. “I think it’s really interesting and amazing for the school to be able to launch something like this.”
Seventh grader Lily Hawes likes to play defense.
“They have similar speeds, so the striker is very fast, but I'm more of a slow one, so I have time so I can hover in front of goal whenever I need to,” she said. . “The most difficult thing is communicating with the team during the game because they do different things sometimes.”
Not only did the students learn how to fly a drone and play new games, they were also able to build and program their own drones.
“Being able to program it helps a lot with STEM activities because it doesn't fly correctly every time,” said Charlie Bishop, technology teacher and coach. “Each time you have to make adjustments, manipulate the program, readjust the program…That's the skill, that's the STEM part of him that I'm passionate about. .”
After each round, students must quickly repair the drone for the next round. In some cases, the blade may become chipped or broken and need to be replaced.
“They did the maintenance, they did the flight records, so it's like the whole aviation experience here for them,” Nick Hawes said.
Both coaches also like being able to bring in new students to be part of the team, such as those who like math or computers.
“I'm making new friends, some of whom I never thought I'd be, but I'm also learning how to fly a drone,” Lily Hawes said. “When you start, you're like, 'Ah,' but after a while you realize what you're doing and you get really good at it.”
Parents who watch them play also see them improve from when they first started.
“When I first came and saw it, I thought, 'Oh my god! This is so cool,'” Julie Kirchhoff said. “At the end, we all cheered and were like, 'We did it! We did it!'” You get invested. ”
Dixon is the only team locally that plays drone soccer. Bishop hopes it will be expanded to allow more teams to compete. Meanwhile, middle school and high school teams will head to Virginia to compete in the 2024 U.S. Drone Soccer National Championships, which will be held the weekend of April 26th. A total of 16 teams from across the United States and international teams will participate. From Türkiye.