From the Classroom to the Championship: Maryland, DC, and Virginia, and West Virginia Robotics Teams Head to Houston
- Alex Bryant
- Apr 15
- 4 min read
April 15, 2025 | Charlottesville, VA — In garages, classrooms, and community centers across the Mid-Atlantic, hundreds of students have spent their school year designing robots, writing code, solving complex challenges, and—perhaps most importantly—building a future they can believe in. This week, those long hours and late nights culminate in the opportunity of a lifetime: representing their communities at the 2025 FIRST Championship in Houston, Texas.
Hosted by FIRST® (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology), the annual international event brings together more than 50,000 participants from over 58 countries. For the students heading to Houston from Maryland, Washington, DC, and Virginia, the trip marks the final stop on a journey defined not just by competition, but by collaboration, growth, and impact.
“Qualifying for the Championship takes more than building a high-performing robot,” said Alex Bryant, Executive Director of FIRST Chesapeake. “It takes resilience, curiosity, and a sense of purpose. These students are engineers and programmers—but they’re also leaders, mentors, and changemakers.”
At the elementary level, FIRST LEGO League teams combine playful creativity with serious purpose, tackling global challenges like energy, transportation, and climate change. As students progress into middle and high school programs—FIRST Tech Challenge and FIRST Robotics Competition—their ideas grow bolder, their designs more sophisticated, and their sense of responsibility deeper.
Amber Driesman, FIRST Chesapeake’s FLL Program Manager, sees that transformation from the start. “When students begin in LEGO League, they’re not just learning how to build. They’re learning how to listen, collaborate, and persevere. This year’s team from Monrovia, Maryland—M.A.J.A.S.S.—epitomizes that spirit. They’re creative, curious, and ready to take on the world.”
That same energy carries forward into the FTC program, where students take full ownership of engineering and coding autonomous robots. According to Shelly Stoddard, Director of FTC at FIRST Chesapeake, the 2024–2025 season has been extraordinary. “FTC teams like Equilibrium.exe, JackBots, and Gear Rotation have impressed us all year—not just with their technical skill, but with their outreach and innovation. These students have created inclusive spaces, mentored younger teams, and brought their whole selves to the table.”
As the stakes rise in FIRST Robotics Competition, high school students face challenges that would intimidate most adults—full-scale robots, tight build deadlines, and high-pressure match play. Yet the support network around them makes it possible.
“Every robot at the Championship represents a village,” said Anne Shade, Director of Operations. “Teachers, mentors, sponsors, parents, alumni—it takes all of us to make these programs possible. And when those robots roll onto the field in Houston, they carry the pride and belief of entire communities behind them.”
This belief in the power of youth—and in their capacity to innovate, lead, and inspire—drives the mission of FIRST Chesapeake and its programs throughout the region.
As the teams pack up their robots and travel bags, they carry with them the hopes of schools, families, and peers. In Houston, they’ll compete not just to win, but to learn, to lead, and to show the world what’s possible when opportunity meets determination.
Representing FIRST Chesapeake at the 2025 FIRST Championship:
FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC)
Team 836 – The RoboBees (Hollywood, MD)
Team 1629 – Garrett Coalition - GaCo (Accident, MD)
Team 1727 – REX (Baltimore, MD)
Team 2106 – The Junkyard Dogs (Goochland, VA)
Team 5804 – TORCH (Richmond, VA)
Team 1731 – Fresta Valley Robotics (Marshall, VA)
Team 620 – Warbots (Fairfax, VA)
Team 540 – TALON 540 (Henrico, VA)
Team 888 – Robotiators (Glenelg, MD)
Team 10224 – MAV MECHANICS (Henrico, VA)
Team 686 – Bovine Intervention (Columbia, MD)
Team 1086 – Blue Cheese (Glen Allen, VA)
Team 3748 – Ragnarok Robotics (Ellicott City, MD)
Team 8592 – Newton² (Fairfax, VA)
Team 422 – Mech Tech Dragons (Richmond, VA)
Team 449 – Blair Robot Project (Silver Spring, MD)
Team 8590 – Cavbotics (Fairfax, VA)
Team 9072 – TigerBots (Hanover, MD)
FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC)
Team 15167 – Robo Troopers (Fairfax, VA)
Team 6417 – Blu Cru (Rockville, MD)
Team 369 – Oakton Cougar Robotics 369 (Fairfax, VA)
Team 19458 – Equilibrium.exe (Potomac, MD)
Team 20194 – JackBots (Moorefield, WV)
Team 25865 – FeNiX.exe (Rockville, MD)
Team 18442 – Gear Rotation (Sykesville, MD)
FIRST LEGO League (FLL)
Team 31851 – M.A.J.A.S.S. (Monrovia, MD)
ABOUT FIRST CHESAPEAKE
FIRST Chesapeake is a 501 (c) 3 nonprofit organization that operates the FIRST Robotics program in DC, Maryland, and Virginia. We work as a community to prepare young people for a STEM future and aim to ensure our programs have a lasting, positive impact on participants across all demographic groups.
ABOUT FIRST
FIRST® is a global robotics community dedicated to preparing young minds for the future, engaging over 6,000 teams of middle and high school students annually in various robotics challenges. Through its programs, FIRST aims to cultivate STEM skills, innovation, and teamwork among the next generation of innovators and problem solvers.
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