Wyoming — When talking to competitor teams at the 2025 FIRST Championships, the Wyoming High School robotics team was often met with surprise about their size and demographics.
With just 12 members, it was one of the smallest teams to qualify for the four-day competition known informally as “worlds” in Houston, Texas. Over the course of the season, they distinguished themselves as a collaborative, student-led team in which members fill various roles and jump in where needed.
Their teamwork and synergy at district competitions led them to placing third in competition at Battle Creek Central High School and second at East Kentwood High School. Then, with a second place overall finish against 160 teams at the State Finals at Saginaw Valley State University April 3-5, they qualified for worlds.
At the international competition April 16-19, the team, known as the Demons, placed in the middle of the pack of 80 teams.
“It shows you don’t need to have a big team to go to worlds. We are a small but mighty team. We have close relationships with everyone.” said junior Jeff Oostdyk.
Along with being few in number, the team looks different than the average, explained teacher-mentor Amy Oostdyk, who is also Jeff’s mother. It has an equal number of boys and girls, several members are Hispanic, one is from Vietnam, five are bilingual, two speak English as a second language and two are in special education.
“We have a very unique team in a lot of ways. For me, to watch these kids that I love, who I think are amazing, keep having success was amazing to me,” she said.
A Kit, a Video, a Manual and Go!
Eight of the 12 students and their robot, Typhoon, recently gathered in the high school robotics room a few days after getting back from Houston. They talked about the cooperation needed to pull off competing in robotics and how they learned to operate like clockwork to make their robot do the same.
“One of the best parts in this robotics team is, we are very student-led, so the students are the ones who do the talking, the leading and are the ones that generally know the most about the robot,” said sophomore Kade Strait.
The season began with a seven-week build period in January with the arrival of a kit, a two-and-a-half minute video and a manual. The team worked from 3–6:30 p.m. every day after school and noon to 6 p.m. on Saturdays, serving on multiple teams in computer-aided design, assembly, programming, media, electrical and machinery.
Each year, FIRST Robotics presents a new challenge for competition. This year’s game, Reefscape — based on the theme of saving a coral reef — tasked students with building a robot that could harvest algae (teal balls) and seed coral (white tubes) onto a reef (a branched structure).
During competition, drivers controlled their robot in alliances with two other teams, earning points for placement of algae in a net and on their reef.
The Wyoming students made all the design choices, created parts with a CNC machine, programmed the robot and led everything in competition.
“The only time a mentor helps is when they are stuck or it’s something that we feel is unsafe for them to do,” Amy Oostdyk said. “On a lot of other teams, the mentors take a much more directional role.”
Letting the students lead helped freshman Rachel Garcia Alicea become comfortable getting to know people from all over, which she said was valuable to her.
“Especially at worlds, there were people from different parts of the world everywhere,” Rachel said. “It was amazing just to see different cultures, the different thoughts that people had in making their robot. I also was getting out of my bubble, talking to people and strategizing stuff and telling people about our robot.”
Kade not only developed advanced skills on the CNC machine, but also found a place to belong.
“When I first came here I was one of the quietest people you will ever meet, didn’t really socialize with anyone and didn’t have the confidence to speak up,” Kade said. “In my couple years here, I’ve started to learn to advocate for myself and speak to people and speak confidently.”
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