BHS Robotics Competition ‘game reveal; set for Jan. 10

By Dell Deaton
Contributing Writer
Like any other sport, FIRST Robotics Competitions open each season by fielding fresh teams, advancing through brackets, and, for an elite few, closing with best-of-the-best facing-off during national or international championships.
Unlike more familiar legacy counterparts that square-off on diamonds, gridirons, and courts, however, the appearance of contestants and very goalposts and fields of play are different every year for student-developed robots.
This Saturday at noon Eastern, umbrella organizer FIRST Inspires is slated to detail exactly what that will mean for 2026. Hometown Team 6615 “Bellevillains” and their advisors will be on-site at the high school to watch the “reveal” simulcast live. That, too, will be their chance to download literally hundreds of pages of documentation for this next game — the only clue to which thus far is its name: “Rebuilt.”
Initial matches come along on the calendar in early March, leading some to see Jan. 10 as starting pistol.
But insiders know better.
Three weeks ago, with just one day left before holiday break, a half-dozen Bellevillains and BHS robotics coach Aaron Watkins participated in an after-school press backgrounder with the Independent. A leading point of emphasis was that the most effective teams view robotics as 12-month engagement.
Thus, Taste of Belleville visitors may have noticed the local team table set up near Horizon Park. Students were there to promote this “STEM-oriented” activity, explain it — and ask for financial support.
“This is a very expensive sport,” one student said. Budgeting for 2026 is expected to range from $20,000 to $30,000. Going into matches, Bellevillains will plan to have up to $7,000 in parts alone on-hand. Participation in each match comes with price tags, too.
For those “elite few” who merit slots at the “World” championship starting at the end of May, travel and lodging costs for Houston, TX, will have to be plugged-into their accounting. Add more money to cover robot packing, shipping, and handling.
Way back when, local leadership recognized the need for enterprise-level thinking from the get-go.
FIRST Inspires was founded in 1989; Belleville entered its first robot in 2017, at the high school level. Attention in the Van Buren Public Schools then quickly prioritized launch of a local “FIRST Tech Challenge” team, which allowed students to join that as early as grade-seven. Next, they primed-the-pump to create a “FIRST LEGO League” team — which meant introducing youth concepts as early as Kindergarten.
This has had the effect of shortening learning-curves and equipped incoming Belleville High School freshmen to hit-the-ground-running as thought- and leadership-contributors en route to FIRST Robotics Competitions.
Concurrently, nascent investments here were deployed to secure position as a host venue for competitions. That was critical to developing and perpetuating whole-of-community involvement.
“We know it’s not easy to figure out scoring for our matches,” one BHS robot programmer told the Independent just before Christmas.
“‘Is my team winning?’ When you’re in the stands, and you see things happening, that brings you into it. That helps you ‘get it.’ Then your mind begins to get a place to put ‘scoring’ and you can figure out why your team is going to advance or if it isn’t going to advance — even if you still aren’t exactly sure how the scoring got to that. But you see that it’s fair.”
Those “stands,” by the way, are the same ones currently occupied this season by Belleville Tigers basketball fans.
Today, just like in the early days, teams can purchase “kit robots” produced by FIRST Inspires. Kit robots comply with all criteria of the current reveal (presently, “Rebuilt”). These can be especially helpful to newcomers, lowering barriers-to-entry by reducing the load on hardware specification deciphering, design, and fabrication time. “Some assembly required” kits, then, equate to more time down the road for programming and driver training.
Despite almost a decade under their belt, Bellevillains will acquire a 2026 kit robot — to support their own newbies. In fact, a dated 2025 piece has continued to serve as an orientation platform for the past several months leading up to Jan. 10.
At the same time, lest readers be led to believe that the last almost-decade has been an all-success, linear climb, coach Watkins briefly revisited the humble beginnings of what is now Team 6615.
“We did not do very well at all,” he said. “I remember one robot that was supposed to be built to fit within a certain cube of space. They always have to. And ours did — in its base configuration. But not when it was deploying. The judges were nice enough about it. But we couldn’t go forward with that, and things got a lot harder, really fast — right there during the event.”
Back at that time, the sum-total Van Buren Schools contingency amounted to eight students. And, thankfully, peer-to-peer support is root-DNA under FIRST Inspires. So other, ostensibly competitor teams stepped forward with offers to assist.
“This is not ‘BattleBots,'” one Bellevillain operator emphasized to the Independent. “You don’t make your robot to destroy other robots. You don’t try to knock other ones over or make them lose by damaging them. You don’t win by blocking.”
A second student elaborated: “If another team needs parts, you help them; you lend them parts.” An important part of Team 6615 gangbox preparations includes stocking parts in considered anticipation of what might be needed for robot correction or repair by other teams in the field.
Beyond the team, that’s broader, self-imposed Tri-community culture when serving in its role as host facility.
Collaborative field of play may be difficult to visualize for anyone brought up with sports where a yard gained by one side requires a yard lost by the other. Yet, putting that mindset aside does not mean lowering the bar on objective performance metrics. “Efficiency” is the key to advancing into State contests, the Independent was advised.
But the Bellevillains course has not been limited to mere reflexive claims of promised results. Juxtaposed against those first couple of years, the last two have seen BHS Team 6615 advance as far as World competitions each time.
And, as the 2026 season, proper, gets under way, the Bellevillains contingent now numbers about 35 students, plus eight to ten mentors. One of those is currently working toward a college degree in computer science. Prior to that — full circle — he, himself, was once a Bellevillain.
For readers interested in a next real-time update, the Saturday “Rebuilt” reveal will be accessible to the general public at no cost. It can be located online by entering “first robotics competition” into the Search box on YouTube.