Glencoe Unified Robotics Team Captures Repeat Victory at Unified Robotics Tournament

Glencoe High School’s Unified Robotics Team pulled off something that rarely happens twice, another championship run. After winning gold last year, the team entered the new season in full rebuild mode. With three seniors graduating and an entirely new team and a new robotics challenge to decode, expectations were modest. “It’s always hard to predict a season with new players and a new challenge,” said coach William Johnson. “But I told the team that if we dug deep, left last year behind, and focused on the task ahead, we’d be successful, and if not, we were at least going to have fun trying.”

This year’s challenge wasn’t for the faint of heart. Teams were tasked with designing two robots capable of launching plastic balls at multiple targets, requiring precision engineering, patience, and a bit of grit. Team inspector Caleb Cornell, a senior, described the season’s build process as “one of the toughest yet,” adding, “I kept everyone on task to build it right, and that’s why they call me Inspector 57.” Senior and master builder Jake Wenger delivered the final approval before the team packed up its robots and headed to Tualatin High School, the host site for this year’s tournament.

Schools from Portland to the Oregon Coast arrived to vie for the title across multiple divisions. Three rounds of competition pushed Glencoe’s robots to their limits, leaving the team hoping their builds would stay on task and hold up against the field.

When the rounds wrapped and the last ball hit its mark, Glencoe secured gold in Division 3 and tied for first place in Division 2, a repeat performance that sparked immediate celebration. Smiles stretched across the team as they realized they had done it again, proving that even in a rebuilding year, Glencoe remains a force to be reckoned with. Scroll down to see photos....