Local robotics team claims FIRST Tech Challenge victory

A fledgling community team is in celebration mode after winning the FIRST Tech Challenge Idaho State Championship.

"I'm as proud as I can be," said Kaden Rice, 17, of Post Falls.

Kaden is captain of the Steelheads, team No. 25776. The Steelheads nabbed the top spot at the competition, held Jan. 30-31 in Boise.

“When the screen popped up that we won, I was so excited I was jumping around," said Eli Morris, 15, of Post Falls. "Then it hit me that we actually did this, so I started bawling my eyes out."

It was an emotional win for the third-year team, as the Steelheads had finished second in the past two years, narrowly defeated by the same team both times.

“We finally got it this year,” said Zephen Morrow, 16, of Hayden.

Zephen conducted much of the 3D printing and design as the team built its winning bot, Scrawny Ronnie, named for its tiny appearance when its armor is removed.

"It was exciting, certainly," Zephen said.

It was the first time in recent memory that a North Idaho team won the championship, which is in its 20th year.

“To our knowledge, no one from North Idaho has ever won,” said Sara Morrow, Zephen's mom and wife of the team's coach, J Morrow. “For sure, the past eight years, no one has won in North Idaho.”

Scrawny Ronnie was among 18 robots at the FIRST Tech Challenge Idaho State Championship, where teams showcased their design and programming acumen as they directed their creations to complete specific tasks.

In years past, the objectives have included programming robots to climb on bars or launch paper airplanes. This year, the robots had to collect different green and purple balls and shoot them into goals. In the first 30 seconds of the challenge, the robots were expected to control themselves during the autonomous portion.

“It didn’t have any glitches,” Sara said. “And we see some robots break out there.”

Boyd Rada, 16, of Post Falls, was the Steelheads' builder and driver.

“I’ve always really liked building robots and stuff,” he said.   

He said it was really cool to win at state.

“We put in a lot of work on the robot," Boyd said. "I figured if we worked hard enough at state, we could win. I was definitely going into it thinking, ‘You’re going to win,’ rather than thinking there was a possibility of losing.”

Coach J Morrow said the Steelheads played a clean competition against their opponents, holding their own even as they barely lost a two-on-one match 115-120 points during one round.

“As much resistance as the other teams could provide, we still almost managed to squeak out the win," J said.

These young robotics champs hope to raise $12,000 to compete in the Western Edge Premier Event in Long Beach, Calif., in May. About 300 robots and youth from around the world will participate.

“The hardest thing about having a team is paying for everything; it’s a lot of cost that goes into this activity,” Sara said.

Steelheads members are selling flower baskets and will be working on other fundraisers to help offset travel and lodging costs. Visit Steelheads_25776 on Instagram and gofundme.com to keep tabs on the team's progress.

“What is really amazing about this is the career-level training," Sara said. "There’s not much you can do as a teenager that is actually putting you on a path to a career. It’s all high tech: computer programming, computer-aided design, engineering, modeling, and 3D printing, which is a big, up-and-coming part of the engineering world.

“We're super proud of them."

Info: firstinspires.org

    Steelheads team member Eli Morris, 15, of Post Falls, loads balls into the team's champion robot, Scrawny Ronnie, during a team meeting Friday morning.
  

    FIRST Tech Challenge 2026 Idaho State Champions, the Steelheads, celebrate their win in Boise. From left: Boyd Rada, Kaden Rice, Eli Morris and Zephen Morrow.
  

    FIRST Tech Challenge 2026 Idaho State champs show off their winning robot on Friday morning. From left: Steelheads coach J Morrow, team member Boyd Rada, Captain Kaden Rice and team members Zephen Morrow (holding Scrawny Ronnie) and Eli Morris.