The Stillwater Robotics team goes into this season coming off the back of multiple teams qualifying for Worlds in Dallas in May 2025.

This group of students are headlined by a talented class of seniors, including Ethan Holm, who said that his team wants to compete in worlds again and do even better than they did last year.

“Last year was pretty good for us, we competed at worlds and made a really good robot. Hopefully we can do the same this year,“ Holm said.

The new changes to the competition are always a challenge to learn and build a robot around.  Senior Thomas Joyce also competed at worlds last year, but this year he is taking a new role as an assistant coach.

When speaking about the new competition format, Thomas said, “Every year they change the game, and every year we have to build around it. It’s going to be fun to see how the different teams approach it.”

The Stillwater Robotics program has seen extraordinary growth in the past few years, according to Robotics Coach Rebecca Palmatary. She said the number of teams and students participating is increasing each and every year. 

“Four years ago we had six teams, now we have 13 teams across middle school, junior high, and high school,” Palmatary said. “Our program’s goal is to teach critical problem solving skills using robotics, and it’s really awesome to see what different groups come up with to solve a problem.”