Leland freshman Nico Geraci received a surprise while volunteering at a robotics tournament in Traverse City over the weekend.
His father, Ralph Geraci, returned home from a deployment in Germany to surprise his son Nico.
“I got to walk out and see my dad again after like five months. It was pretty cool. It was a really nice thing for (coach Michael Parsons) to do that also and the other teams that got involved. They called out my last name and I was really grateful. It was a really cool way to see my dad again,” Nico said.
This is Nico’s first year on the robotics team that is in its sec- ond year as a program. The Leland AstroBots compete at two-sanctioned events during a short season. He also played basketball on the junior varsity team over the winter.
Leland competed in Lake City and Mount Pleasant earlier this month and excelled for a program that is new. Some of Nico’s favorite aspects regarding robotics are solving problems and communicating with teammates.
“The team got a lot better throughout the weeks,” Nico said. “I’m pretty excited for the future just to get more people to join next year. I think it could be a really cool program. You get to meet so many cool people. I really like it. I hope that in the future with more people and just more enthusiasm, we could build a better robot and have better team bonding.”
Over the weekend, Nico along with a teammate were official volunteers and helped out in the competition area.
“Our Team 9568 AstroBots stepped up to support our local robotics community that continues to grow,” Leland Robotics coach Michael Parsons said.
Leland Public School will start up FIRST LEGO League Explore and FIRST LEGO League Discover teams this spring: bringing robotics from K-12 in Leelanau County.
