Arroyo Grande High School robotics team earns trip to World Championships in Houston
ARROYO GRANDE, Calif. - Arroyo Grande High School's Eagle Robotics team is heading to Houston, Texas next week where it will compete in the prestigious FIRST Robotics World Championships.
"It's so exciting," said Alex Kaplan, Eagle Robotics President/Lead Programmer. "This opportunity, no one expected this. We have 11 new members and eight veterans. We were like, 'okay, we're just going to rebuild this year and see how well we can do,' but we ended up as our best year on the team yet, and it's just a crazy experience to go to worlds."
The squad recently qualified for the international finale by finishing second place at Hueneme Port Regional, marking just the third time in the 21-year history of the Eagles Robotics program that it will compete at the World Championships.
"This is a huge deal for our team," said Orion Schmidt, Eagle Robotics Head of Strategy/Treasurer. "We haven't qualified for 17 years. The last time we qualified, I wasn't even born yet, so it has been a long time coming and we finally made it to this. This is something that, while it's surprising how small our team is, it really shouldn't be."
Eagle Robotics is an entirely self-funded program, where students put in over 3,000 hours of their own time after school to design and build a robot that takes part in various competitions throughout the tournament season.
"There's 14 adult mentors with the program," said advisor James Carter. "We have six different sub-teams, and the teams work together to create 'Bruce,' (the robot's name). We have a fabrication team. We have electrical team. We have a design team. We have programming. We have a strategy team and we have PR (public relations). All these teams function pretty well. Everything happens at night, so this is not a class. It is an extension of their school day."
The 2025 FIRST Championship will be held at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston from April 16-19, with 50,000 attendees, including 600 teams from more than 50 countries expected to take part.
Eagle Robotics will be one of 600 elite high school robotics teams from around the world, including Europe, Asia, North America and other locations.
In order to fund the nearly week-long trip to Texas, the team is now in fundraising mode. According to the students, the team needs to raise about $30,000 to fully fund the costs needed to financially support the more two dozen people who will travel to the tournament.
"It's all very expensive," said Orion Schmidt, Eagle Robotics Head of Strategy/Treasurer. "This year we have worked with the school and they're helping us out. They're hosting a barbecue for us on April 13th, right out in front of our school, where we are selling chicken for 20 bucks. We also have School Fundr where people can go in there and donate. There's many different ways we've been attacking this issue of making enough money. It's been a lot of work, but we're doing it."
The chicken barbecue will prepared by Masonic Lodge 237 and be held on Sunday, April 13 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the front parking lot at Arroyo Grande High School.
For more information on Eagle Robotics, click here to visit the team's official website, or click here to the team's School Fundr site to donate.
