There’s more than robotics at West End Secondary School

December 16, 2024 Andy Furman

The Armory Track and Field Center in Washington Heights. Photo: Beyond My Ken, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

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The last time students from West End Secondary School visited the Armory Track and Field Center in Washington Heights, their robotics teams were competing in the New York City regionals of the FIRST Robotics Competition, an international high school robotics contest.

That was back in April.

Last week, the boys’ indoor track team from WESS visited that same armory and walked out winning the Jim McKay Team Challenge.

“We beat some pretty big schools,” a happy coach Robert Dice told the Brooklyn Eagle the other day. “Metropolitan High from Queens finished second,” he reminded, “and everyone contributed to the win.”

It was more than just a win — in fact, it might be classified as a minor miracle.

WESS, on West 61st Street, Manhattan, was founded in 2015. The public school has 703 students and serves grades 6 through 12. More than that, 74% of the students scored at or above the proficient level for math, and 76% scored at or above that level for reading.

As for Robert Dice, well, he scored a home run when he entered WESS six years ago.

“When I arrived in the fall of 2019,” he remembered,” we had 10 kids and started as a running club. We grew to Public Schools Athletic League competition in our third season.”

And today, Dice boasts a coed squad of 53 kids — 27 boys and 26 girls — in a school that only competes in boys’ basketball, girls’ volleyball and coed club soccer along with his cross-country indoor and outdoor running programs.

“Our growth is simple,” said Dice, who teaches ninth-grade social studies and as AP Human Geography, along with his coaching duties. “Success built our program. The kids heard about it, and success attracts more success.”

The school may lack in athletic facilities, but it certainly is not lacking in competitive spirit. “Our distance runners practice in Central Park; our sprinters run the hallways and twice-a-week train at The Armory,” Dice said.

“Our program,” he continued, “has three simple values — accountability, sacrifice and humility. The kids are academically very strong.”

Practice is four days a week, he said, and two hours a day. “And,” Dice quickly adds, “we do it all with humility.”

What they did was to win the Jim McKay Team Challenge with speed. Jonah Guthartz, an 11th grader, finished first in the weight throw with a toss of 42 feet, 3 1/2 inches. Julian Francis, a senior, won the 1,000 meters in 2:50.9.

“It was a season-best for Julian,” the coach said, “and, by the way, he lost his shoe after the first lap.”

Senior Jack Collmer won his first race at the Jim McKay — winning the 1,600 meters in 4:59.99. “It was his first sub-five-minute mile,” Dice said, “he’s a real workhorse.”

But it was the 4×800 relay team that pushed WESS to the title. “We were tied with Metropolitan, and came from behind to win it,” Dice said. “Thomas Loeb-Lojko overcame all odds to win it.”

Loeb-Lojko and senior Avery Furey are team captains, while Collmer and junior Jordan Citron are assistant captains, the coach said.

“In fact,” Dice says, “Citron is a fantastic middle-distance runner who is incredibly dedicated and passionate. Furey is a hard-working distance runner, a standout leader and role model.”

Avery Leibowitz is a new middle-distance runner, the coach said, “who has impressed with her speed and work ethic.” Dice goes on to mention one of the team’s best sprinters — Sasha Gutt — and ninth-grader Nora Kosta-Cetin, a middle-distance runner with great potential.

“I could go on about all these students,” Dice said. “They really are an inspiration with their dedication and hard work.”

A running program at WESS was probably just a dream before Dice entered the school. Competition for WESS consisted of robotics against the likes of well-established schools known for their STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) programs. Schools like The Bronx High School of Science and Stuyvesant High School.

The student-teacher ratio at WESS is 12:1, which is better than that of the district. The student population is made up of 53% female students and 47% male students.

The robotics students may have won a $6,000 grant from NASA for their competition. But the boys’ indoor track team has the Jim McKay Team Challenge Trophy — with humility.

Andy Furman is a Fox Sports Radio national talk show host. Previously, he was a scholastic sports columnist for the Brooklyn Eagle. He may be reached at: [email protected] Twitter: @AndyFuermanFSR