Oxford High School’s robotics team, TORC 2137 will soon have a home with space for the high school students to practice their large-scale robot games, thanks to the Oxford Village Police Department.

The team will be practicing out of a large, primarily vacant, building located behind the Village Police Department’s current office.

The building formerly served as Oxford’s fire station and is currently used for storage and as a meeting space for some community groups, according to Police Chief Mike Sowold.

“Anything involving the schools, we definitely want to help out in any way that we can. We’re happy to help,” said Sowold.

TORC 2137 Mentor Mary Hanser said the new space will allow the team to do full practice runs as the team prepares for its 2018 First Robotics season.

The new practice space meets all of the criteria that the team had been hoping for, Hanser added.

“(The police department) has been so gracious and absolutely wonderful to work with. It’s everything we needed. It’s safe, it’s heated, it’s right next to the police station and there’s access to a bathroom. We have enough space to get our work done in now… We want to have a great robot and a great season. We’re grateful to the police department for being so accommodating and for helping us out. We’re looking forward to having a partnership with the Village of Oxford,” said Hanser.

For the last two years, TORC 2137 had been traveling over 30 minutes away several times a week to use Romeo High School’s robotics practice field.

Having a local space to practice in will give the team more time to focus on the important things– like programming of the team’s robot, said Hanser.

Hanser added that the team will now be able to set up most of its practice field, which would be representative of the one they will compete on during the FIRST Robotics Championship at Detroit’s Cobo Center which will be held in late April.

TORC 2137 will head to Waterford for its first competitions of the season on Saturday, March 10 and Sunday, March 11.

To learn more about the robotics team, please visit TORC2137.com.