The 2025 version of the Becker robotics team, FRC 4607, began its season last Saturday with its annual kickoff celebration at Becker High School.

The event is always the first chance for team members, coaches and mentors to tune into the challenge that each team must solve as part of the world’s greatest high school robotics competition.  FRC, or the FIRST Robotics Competition, will host events worldwide, with the top performers meeting at the end of the regional tournament for a chance to score big at the World Championships.

This season’s challenge is titled Reefscape, and tasks teams with building a robot that can harvest “algae” (rubber balls), seed coral (PVC pipe) and return to the barge on the playing field to climb on “underwater” cages.

As is customary, the robot will be programmed for a 15 second autonomous cycle to start each match, followed by the drive team competing in a three robot alliance to outscore the opponents in the final two minutes and 15 seconds of each round.

“Many of the concepts we used a year ago will be applicable to this year’s robot construction,” said Coach Alex Jurek.  

This year’s kickoff was a special one, as the team hosted an alumni breakfast and 25 former members of the team attended.

Several of the returning members indicated the huge impact that the team had on their current professions, and some are even planning a return trip to Becker to see the team in action during one of their many build sessions.

“They were blown away with our new equipment and for them to see the 24 banners hanging in our shop, it was incredible,” Jurek added, referring to the numerous awards won by the team.  

As the team builds the 2025 version of the robot, all eyes are on the Duluth Lake Superior Regional which will kick off on February 27 for the team’s first competition.  After that, they will travel to the Phantom Lakes Regional in Wisconsin on March 27 and then the team will play host on April 3-5 at the Granite City Regional in St. Cloud.

State and World Championship tournaments are then a possibility for the Becker team, who has built a reputation as one of the best teams in the entire country.

For the first time ever, the team will also host several scrimmages thanks to their new competition space at the Early Childhood Center on the Becker campus.

“None of this could happen without our sponsors,” Jurek said.  “We have the best sponsors a team could possibly have.”