VEX Robotics Team Still Growing, Competition Season is Here
September 30, 2025
Thetford Academy’s VEX Robotics team membership has grown exponentially in the last few years, with TA’s team “4886” reaching an all-time high this season with 25 members. There’s a chance that number will grow, too, when the fall sports season comes to an end next month. “It’s pure pandemonium in the robot shack after school,” said Coach Leif Lawhite, “and the lights are often on well into the evening and on weekends.”
The team is working to build eight robots (five middle school and three high school bots) before their competition season begins on October 25. Each year, VEX launches a new game and this year’s, titled “Push Back,” looks challenging! Teams compete on a 12′ x 12′ field with four goals and 88 blocks to maneuver for points. As always, each game starts with a 15 second autonomous period (teams pre-program their robots) followed by one minute and 45 seconds of driver-controlled play.
The first competition for TA will be at Trinity High school in Manchester, NH. The team is perhaps more excited, though, for the next event, the second annual Haunted Harvest tournament – hosted right here at Thetford Academy in the Vaughan Alumni Gymnasium. The Haunted Harvest tournament will feature more than 30 robots from TA and other schools and is scheduled for Saturday, November 1. Spectators welcome!