MERRIMACK, NH – Merrimack High School FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) team, Chop Shop 166 hosted the “Week Zero” competition, the first in 2025. Thirty-two teams of high-school students from across New England brought their industrial-sized robots to the school to compete on the REEFSCAPE field specifically designed challenges for the 2025 season.
FIRST is a robotics community that prepares young people for the future through inclusive, team-based robotics programs for ages 4-18 that can be facilitated in school or structured after-school programs. It is a nonprofit founded by New Hampshire inventor Dean Kamen in 1989.
According to FIRST an estimated 92,525 students on more than 3,700 teams are expected to participate in this year’s program. You can see a brief description of the 2025 game in this video.
Each team starts with a kit of parts when the parameters for the season are announced in January. In the last six weeks have fabricated their machines to meet the recently revealed tasks and challenges of the competition field. “ Week Zero” is the first chance to test the equipment in a competition.
Although labeled as a competition a spirit of cooperation and support permeates the event. Dr. Woody Flowers the co-creator of FIRST coined the phrase “gracious professionalism “ to describe the values of the community.
Shane Gilbert Chop Shop’s Co-Captain interest in robotics began when he was a small child and a family friend who was a mentor to team 238, brought him to a competition saying, “I loved robotics. I have loved it for a long time.”
He also likes the cooperative and friendly vibe of the events by describing this attitude in action.
“There’s a team today, they needed to use the drill press that we have here in our shop on their bumpers. And they asked, do you guys have a machine shop? And we’re like, oh, yeah, we have a machine shop. And so we brought them down to our machine shop and let them use our drill press just today. It’s everyone working together,” Shane said.
Nashua was represented at the event by Team Phoenix from the Academy for Science and Design. The public charter school team designated as number 2342 has been competing since 2006.
Jeff Brockway is one of the team mentors who guides the group. They have about 50 members involved in the building and technology of robotics. They also have to raise funds to support the endeavor and manage a complex organization working under the pressure of deadlines.
For Brockway, the learning experience goes beyond d the technology saying, “They learn so many skills. Yeah sure, we build a robot. But they learn problem-solving skills. They learn how to talk to adults in a professional setting. They learn how to communicate effectively with peers. They learn how to work out problems and troubleshoot. A lot of these kids go on to do things other than robotics. But what they learn here, it doesn’t matter what they go on to do. They take those skills away from them”
More than 300 people filled the stands of the school gymnasium and paid rapt attention to the day-long series of challenges and heats. Pit crews and repair benches for the teams were spread throughout the school and were on full display for the public to visit and appreciate.
Alliance 1 won the event which was comprised of the following teams: 190 Gompei and the HERD from Worchester, Mass., 2877 LigerBots from Newtonville, Mass.,, and team 5422 Stormgears from Westford, Mass. You can view the full playoffs results here.
View the video to see the competition action on the REEFSCAPE field.