Auburn, AL – Students from the Calhoun County Career Academy’s CREATE Robotics program earned major honors at the Alabama State Tournament held February 20–21 in Auburn, with two teams placing in the competition and qualifying for the VEX Robotics World Championship.
CREATE senior Braylon McDonald, competing on the team “10 Count Now Available,” partnered with Alexandria High School’s team “First Class” to secure the state runner-up title during the tournament. With the strong finish, McDonald earned an invitation to compete at the VEX Robotics World Championship, scheduled for April 21–24 in St. Louis, Missouri.
The name “10 Count Now Available” was inspired by McDonald’s job at Chick-fil-A located inside Quintard Mall in Oxford.
A second CREATE team also secured an invitation to the international competition. Seniors Jackson Smith and Henry Mancillas, along with junior Will Smith, competed as “Dougatron.” The team qualified for the VEX Robotics World Championship based on its strong performance in the Skills portion of the competition, which combines both Driver Controlled and Autonomous programming challenges.
CREATE’s robotics program is led by coaches Krista Mintz and Kim Moore, with robotics instruction provided by Britt Young.
Students representing the CREATE Robotics program include Henry Mancillas, Jackson Smith, Will Smith, Braylon McDonald, Jack Patterson, Justin Perrigo, Ben Brady, and Alex Carroll.
The VEX Robotics World Championship brings together top teams from around the world to compete in robotics engineering, programming, and teamwork challenges.
