The ROCORI Public School District board heard a presentation from the high school’s FIRST Robotics team on its season, regional championships and the team’s first trip to the FIRST Championship in Houston.

The presentation, led by coach Jay Fembry and team members including co-captain Daniel and programming lead Colin Lane, summarized this season’s results and how the team builds its robot each year. Daniel said the team won two regionals — La Crosse (7 Rivers) and Saint Cloud — which qualified them for the world championship in Houston. “We ranked first, and then we went undefeated through playoffs and won that,” Daniel said of one regional. The team also won a quality award at the world championship after finishing third in its division.

Board members and attendees heard how the FIRST competition works, the season timeline and what students learn. Colin Lane described the game for the 2025 season, “Reefscape,” and explained the two main game pieces (a large ball called algae and a smaller PVC piece called coral) and how matches are scored. Daniel and other students explained that teams design and build a new robot each season in about six months, using CAD, CNC machining and 3D printing. “One of the goals is to fail fast,” a student said of the iterative prototyping process.

Parent remarks framed the program’s community impact. A parent who accompanied the students described the world championship atmosphere and called the program a point of pride for the rural district, noting students' collaborations with better-funded teams from across the U.S. and abroad. “They built alliances with teams from Mexico, from India. They built alliances with teams that have huge annual grant funding that sustains them,” the parent said, adding that the program gives many students a place to contribute beyond the drive team.

Team leaders described program growth and costs. The team said it had four students two years ago, grew to eight, and reported 13 students now with expectations to reach 15–20. Students and the parent reported fundraising covers much of the build and travel costs. The parent provided a rough budget breakdown shared with the board: about one-third of the budget for robot build, one-third for travel during the season and one-third specifically for attending the world championship. The district has assisted with local transportation and facility space for practice and community outreach.

Students described technical details and strategy used at events: scouting other teams, selecting alliances, and specialized subteams (drivers, operators, human players, scouting). Several students highlighted that the program includes nonrobot roles such as media, data analysis and business/marketing, and that teams from area schools collaborate weekly.

The board and attendees asked questions about team size limits (one robot per high school in FIRST competitions), safety and the costs of participating in larger events; students and coaches answered that there is no formal team-size limit but practical limits are set by travel costs and registration fees. The team encouraged board members and community members to attend local events or watch livestreams; students noted the live event energy differs markedly from watching the stream.

The board thanked the students and coaches and asked the team to share competition schedules with the district. The district and team intend to continue supporting the program’s growth through facility access and transportation assistance.

The presentation closed with the board inviting the team back and offering support for the upcoming season and registration meeting.