A little parochial school in the inner city might have an outstanding choir or lightning fast CYO flag football team, or even a brilliant academic decathlon squad. But a high-tech robotics team on a par with more affluent private and public schools?

Tell that to St. Agnes School at Vermont Avenue and West Adams Boulevard. Its junior high robotics team, called "Crash," garnered enough prizes in a November regional competition --- including third place in programming and first place as "rookies" --- to move on to the state competition, which was held Dec. 2 at Legoland in San Diego. And there, the team finished 23rd out of 56 schools.

"I didn't know what to expect when we got into this late last year," said math and religion teacher Janie Salazar, who coaches the robotics team. "I wasn't sure if our inner-city kids would really go for it. But they love it, even the girls, who make up half the team."

"And it's very educational," she stressed. "They're learning a lot of teamwork and working with each other. Plus, they're really building their critical thinking skills. Our robot wouldn't make a turn in the first competition, and we couldn't figure it out. But then the kids took off the tires and it just makes it turn so much easier. So it was that critical thinking of knowing that the rubber was making a difference."

But the teacher points out that team members have honed other skills, too, in preparing for the two competitions, like public speaking and computer programming, plus lots of research and journal writing.

"And then, just the idea they're playing with a robot," Salazar said, smiling. "So they're having a blast. And we did very well for the first two times we were in competition."

First, St. Agnes students had to build their Lego-like robot, which has an electric motor run by batteries, along with nine "mission modules."

Then they were challenged to make the robot perform different tasks at each mission around a mini-arena. Most often, this involves moving forward or backward for a certain number of seconds and making turns before pushing against a module with its text or light sensor. Finally, it had to return safely home to base.

All of these instructions had to be programmed into the robot's computer brain beforehand on "autonomous mode," because no remote control joy sticks were allowed. Glitches, of course, became facts of life.

Team manager Carolina Perez, an eighth-grader, and programmer Joseph Zaragoza, a sixth-grader, agree that the robot, at times, seemed to have a mind of its own, turning right instead of left or simple refusing to budge at all. But these on-the-job frustrations were more than balanced by other joys.

"I'm a team manager, seeing that everybody is doing what they're supposed to do, and seeing that they have everything correct," Carolina explained. "So I get to do part of everything. I get to program; I get to build; I get to test. So it's really, really fun. We have to all work together and have fun with each other, too. It's awesome!"

Joseph, the programmer, likes working on computers and all kinds of mechanical stuff. What he really loves, however, is telling the robot what to do and being its master. "You learn team work, communication," he said. "It's a great experience, and it's just a blast to be here."

Principal Kevin Dempsey thinks the robotics program helps show that St. Agnes is succeeding in the inner city, despite long odds. He's thankful to the private Archer School in Brentwood for its steadfast support. He believes the program's educational benefits are many, including hands-on learning with less reliance on classroom drill and practice.

"Robotics teaches kids to think," the former teacher said. "These kids are learning to think and learning how to solve problems and how to apply the scientific method to everyday life. It's certainly a life skill."

Seventh-grader Reynaldo Cartagena, another programmer on the team, has had to help solve some major problems with the stubborn robot and complex mission modules. But it hasn't deterred him one bit.

"I think that computers are one of the best inventions ever made in the world," he declared, fingers glued to the programming Dell laptop on a student's desk. "So I like working on them. The competitions were exciting. They used a lot of my energy."