Westminster High School students headed to South Korea for drone soccer tournament
It's like the World Cup but with drones. Drone soccer is a relatively new sport that Colorado youth are dominating.
Eight Colorado students will soon travel all the way to South Korea to represent the United States for the first time ever at the World Drone Soccer Championships.
Tuesday, they played a friendly match against South Korea's team at the Colorado Convention Center.
"Drone soccer is a little bit like quidditch if you've seen Harry Potter," said team captain Makayla Galler.
Two teams of five face off, each one has a striker, a keeper and three defenders. The players attempt to fly drones through the other team's hoop and defend their own.
"So the drone itself is the actual ball and that's how you get the points," said Galler.
"We were one of the first three schools in the United States to pilot this program," said Westminster High School teacher and drone soccer coach Robert Ferguson. The program is in it's third year in Westminster.
Four students from Westminster High School, three from Cherry Creek and one home schooler make up Team USA. But they didn't become world class drone athletes overnight.
"It took me, I'd say like, six months to get the controllers down to where I could score without like crashing and stuff," said Westminster high schooler Xavier Culp. "And repairing is a whole other thing. We're still working out kinks."
As students prepare to make history facing off against 18 other teams in South Korea, they're also preparing for their futures.
"I really didn't know how my life was gonna end up, and now I can see a path for me so it's something amazing," said Culp. He will soon go to college for aviation and aerospace engineering, while Galler has now gotten her professional drone's license and private pilot's license. She hopes to one day become an astronaut.
"Drone soccer actually got me into flying gliders because it just lit a spark in my heart and got me to start flying," said Galler.
The high schoolers will head to South Korea this weekend and compete May 17 through May 20.
U.S. Drone Soccer is planning to pilot an elementary school program using a smaller drone.
