WHMS robotics students built their way to state from ground up

The robotics course at West Holmes Middle School has taken flight in the past couple of years, and it may never come down as it continues to gain popularity and success.

Recently, the WHMS robotics team sent four of its five teams to the 2026 Ohio VEX Robotics State Championship at the National Museum of the Air Force in Dayton March 4-5, where one team narrowly missed becoming the first WHMS team to qualify for the global competition and all four teams saw success.

The event featured Ohio’s top achieving middle school VEX robotics competition teams that were competing for championships and a chance to move on to the global competition.

Each team earned a spot in the competition by winning or ranking highly at local and regional tournaments. Teams were asked to design, build and program robots, then compete in teamwork matches and skills challenges that test strategy, engineering and collaboration.

Several of those award-winning state qualifiers gathered over their lunch period recently to continue to hone their skills in the robotics field.

Those team members included Colton House, Jackson Vaughn, Koby Fehr, Dominic Cicconetti, Clint Burgett and Nolan Brown.

West Holmes Middle School coach/adviser Jeremy Dombrady said even though competition season is over, it’s exciting to see the students eager to continue to be involved with the robotics movement.

“We had five teams. Four of them qualified, and a total of 19 kids made the trip,” Dombrady said. “We had four of the 56 qualifying teams, which is incredible.”

Dombrady said seeing this class take flight and gain in popularity is exciting because it gives students an alternative to explore studies outside the typical classroom setting.

He said many friendships have developed from the program because it creates an opportunity that makes teammates work so closely.

The goal for the competition this year was straightforward.

“Basically, what we had to do was design and build our own robots to compete in the games,” House said.

The competition consisted of creating a robot that would successfully pick up octagonal blocks off the floor and place them into a tube, along with team members going through a rigorous interview session from competition leaders.

“It was fun and challenging,” said Burgett, one of the veteran members who was at state last year. “We went through a few different models before settling on our drive train.”

The members agreed this experience was a good one that provided them with plenty of confidence moving forward.

Brown said since many of the team members experienced state last year, that experience paved the way for more confidence they would be back again this year.

According to Dombrady, his involvement was minimal because it was up to the students to take charge and design and perform at every level of the process.

“I can talk to the kids about tips and strategies and what needs to take place in the competition, but as far as building the robots and making everything happen, it’s all on the kids,” Dombrady said. “At state it’s all student-centered.”

That includes statewide skills rankings, which was why three of the four teams qualified for state.

“These kids did it all,” Dombrady said. “They took the reins and took the lead and did the work, and that is what is truly exciting.”

The reasons each student gets involved with the robotics class varies. House said he enjoys building things around the house with his dad. Cicconetti said he was encouraged to join by a teacher and said hanging out with friends is a big part of the joy.

Fehr said his intrigue began through building LEGO projects, and the idea of taking apart things and rebuilding them was enticing to him.

“I’ve built LEGO projects my whole life,” Fehr said.

Brown agreed being around friends in a fun atmosphere was ideal while Burgett said he enjoys hands-on work rather than typical book work in school.

“I like the engineering idea of building something myself and seeing it work well,” Burgett said.

Fehr said the intricacies of coding, where every tiny decision is critical, changes the way a robot reacts to instructions, adding to the importance of making strong key decisions.

Another exciting aspect of the competition was going through the process with teammates and building relationships.

“It can be stressful,” House said. “You work on this together all year, and there are challenges. We went through a competition where we didn’t win a single match this year, but that’s part of the challenge and we got to experience it together.”

Burgett said the state competition allowed them to see other schools’ teams and how they approached the objectives, and that experience will be invaluable.

House said with many of the team members being in eighth grade, this experience will help propel them to new heights at the high school level next year. He said helping the younger middle school members being introduced to robotics also was something the eighth-graders enjoyed.