Madison Academic’s High Voltage heads to 2026 VEX Robotics World Championship

Madison Academic High School’s robotics team, High Voltage (team 3831C), is headed to the 2026 VEX Robotics World Championship in St. Louis, the school’s coach said on the district podcast. The four-day tournament features a divisional format and international competition that the program described as drawing teams from more than 30 countries.

Coach Kyle Wallace, Madison’s engineering design teacher, said the school’s robotics program is student-led and built on classroom work in Principles of Engineering and Engineering Design 1. “Everything you do in life is a pretty much an engineering design process,” Wallace said, explaining the team’s cycle of concept, build, test and iteration.

Wallace described running three teams at Madison Academic—one sophomore team and two freshman teams—each made up of five to six students assigned roles such as builder, programmer, driver and notebooker. He noted one freshman squad had competed at the U.S. Open in Iowa and another advanced from the state tournament to Worlds this year.

“The biggest thing that we have in robotics is the engineering design process,” Wallace said. He emphasized coaches must be hands-off during matches: “I can’t help with the robot. I can’t help build the robot. I can’t hold the robot.” Coaches may only advise between rounds and must not engage in conduct that could trigger sportsmanship penalties.

Student coders explained how programming affects match play. Nicholas Blondett, who handles much of the team’s code, described the autonomous period when prewritten commands control the robot: “That part, especially if it’s not set up almost perfectly, it can require a lot of trial and error.” Blondett said the team uses C++ for its control code.

Landon Smith, who has prior experience with middle-school mechanical teams, said that background helped with troubleshooting and building. “You have to learn everything. Everything that goes wrong, you have to learn from or else you won’t go further,” he said, describing lessons about friction, drivetrain choices and motor selection.

Elijah Benson, who Wallace described as an informal assistant during events, said much of the team’s growth comes from collaboration and communication required in tournament play. Students said they value interviews with judges and the alliance-based format that requires teams to form strategies with unfamiliar partners.

An official school send-off for High Voltage is planned for Monday at Madison Academic; the podcast did not state a date. Students said their immediate hopes at Worlds are to earn an award or bring home a banner, while acknowledging top honors will be a long shot against international competition.

The program highlighted the broader role of VEX robotics in Jackson Madison County Schools’ STEM pipeline and the career skills it develops. Wallace said he can envision team members moving into engineering or computing fields in the coming years and praised student leadership on competition days.

The district podcast episode thanked Wallace and the team—Elijah Benson, Landon Smith and Nicholas Blondett—and directed listeners to the school’s YouTube page and radio731.com for the full conversation and the recorded interview.