Three local high school robotics teams are heading to the Denver Regionals competition this month with two goals: first, beat the competition; second, collaborate with the competition.

These seemingly contradictory objectives make sense under the rules of FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics, the international nonprofit that organizes student competitions. “No one doing anything important does it alone,” said East High School math teacher and robotics coach Luke Santo.

At DSST: Montview High School, junior Javier Tafoya is the lead driver of his team’s robot, dubbed Buttercup Terminator in honor of the yellow balls it collects. “The competition can get pretty brutal, with the robots bashing into each other,” he said. “Everyone is so passionate, and we have a lot of fun.”

As a robot driver, “there’s a lot of pressure,” he continued. “But I know we’ve got this.” DSST: Montview has been invited to the FIRST Robotics world championship twice in the past three years.

The FIRST challenge for 2026 is similar to basketball—though with more than 400 balls and robots limited to 30 inches in height and 110 inches in perimeter. Each team must create a robot that can gather balls and shoot them into a central hub, while navigating obstacles and performing faster than others in the arena. For extra points, teams can tweak their robot to climb a structure.

Competition and collaboration are built into the format: Matches are played three-on-three, with shifting alliances. A team may partner with one school team in a qualifying round and face them as an opponent in the next.

“It’s a great incentive to be very professional,” said Mark Mehringer, lead coach of the Northfield Nightbots. The team includes about 30 students from Northfield High School and several others who attend schools without robotics teams.

The desire to “design from scratch” led Mehringer’s son, freshman Maddox Mehringer, to join the team. His dad’s willingness to mentor the group “has made us closer,” he said. “We talk about strategy a lot.”

While Northfield’s robotics program is only in its second year, it has earned a reputation at regionals. Last spring the Nightbots took home the Rookie All-Star Award.

Sophomore Habib Seid founded the team. “I’ve always liked engineering. I’ve always liked coding,” he said. “Those passions turned into a robotics passion, and I wanted to explore it with other people.”

Last year Seid and his teammates constructed a robot from a kit, but this year they are designing, coding, manufacturing, and programming a custom bot with swerve capabilities. During the robotics busy season, from January to April, most teams meet five days a week for three hours a day.

To give the Nightbots a solid start, the teams from East and DSST: Montview have pitched in with supplies and fundraising tips, said Jason West, the Nightbots’ business manager.

The East Angelbotics, which has consistently placed at regionals over 20 years of participating in FIRST, are especially known for supporting competitors. At events, “Service Angels” wheel around a cart of extra parts, dedicated to assisting other teams. “We’re known as that one team that’s really nice and just helps everybody,” said freshman Harper Miller. “It’s nice to be a part of that.”

For East sophomore Tamer Ahmed, the best part of robotics is the end goal. “It’s special because seeing something we all worked on and put so much effort into driving, intaking, and shooting is so rewarding.”

The East, Northfield, and DSST: Montview teams are all aiming to make the playoffs at Denver Regionals, which will feature about 50 schools. Regional winners are invited to the world championship.

FIRST Robotics involves learning how to raise money for an entrepreneurial endeavor. At DSST: Montview, funds come from family and friends, grants from companies such as Google, area businesses, and the DSST school network. The team raises $100,000 annually, covering robots and competition travel fees. As a new team, the Nightbots have not prioritized travel money, yet they’ve secured more than $10,000, mostly through community donations, to finance their robot. “Grandmothers are our top category of donors so far this year,” coach Mehringer said, chuckling.

Beyond the robot, teams operate like a small business, with a few members never using a screwdriver or writing code. Instead, they prepare grant applications, send letters to donors, and create displays for the competition pit.

Sophomore Elyssa Olivas serves as the Nightbots’ imagery lead. “It’s art plus science,” she said. “I see the team as a family.”

Front Porch photos by Christie Gosch