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Rogue Rangers, a robotics team with kids from around Hidalgo County, proudly represented the Valley as the only team to compete last weekend at the FIRST Championship, an international competition that brought more than 50,000 people, 1,000 robots and teams from 66 countries to Houston.
FIRST is a global nonprofit founded in 1989. The organization prepares young people for a future in STEM through inclusive, team-based robotics programs. The robotics competitions are divided by age group and categories.
The Rogue Rangers, led by coaches Sammy and Damaris Rivers and Carlos Hernandez, competed in the FIRST Robotics Competition, and were the only team out of 13 in the Valley to make it to the world championship.
Ginobili Rivera and Jacqueline Gonzalez inspect their robot to make sure all the mechanisms are working properly before a demonstration Monday, April 21, 2025, at the McAllen Elks Lodge. (Omar Zapata | The Monitor)The team consists of Sebastian Hernandez, Julian Garcia, Davin Iglesias, Ginobili Rivera, all of McAllen; Yania Vargas and Joaquin Garza, who are from Edinburg; Rainier Zamora, of Pharr; and Jacqueline Gonzalez, of La Joya.
The group of teenagers earned their spot at the championship by winning the FIRST Impact Award at the Texas championship level.
Rivera said the award is the most prestigious award at the competition and honors the team that best represents a model for other teams to emulate and embodies the mission statement of the organization.
“Texas only had two slots for that award,” he said. “I think that was an accomplishment in itself. Because nobody here in the Valley has accomplished that award at that high level.”
Rivera calls it one of his proudest moments being able to give that experience to his young group.
“I think with the experience, we can give back to the Valley and make other teams better,” he said. “That’s the whole purpose. We elevate our game and they can elevate themselves as well. That’s what we’ve been taught through the program, to always give back.”
Ginobili Ribera, left, and Julian Garcia work together to fix an unexpected issue with the robot during the demonstration Monday, April 21, 2025, at the McAllen Elks Lodge. (Omar Zapata | The Monitor)Garcia, a senior at McAllen Memorial, called the experience surreal.
“There was about like 50,000 kids coming into one place,” he said. “I would have never imagined I would have seen so many different people from across the world.”
Gonzalez said it was nerve wracking competing with teams around the world.
The competition was called Reefscape which gave teams the task of using engineering skills to make a robot to receive and place things in the ocean’s most diverse habitats. These large robots are built by the students, which compete against other teams to place items on simulated coral reefs.
She said the team did well but did run into a problem with the drive chain during the match.
“I feel like it was a really good opportunity because (other teams) got to see how we were different in our own way, especially being from the Valley,” Gonzalez said. “A lot of the time they would look at our robot and they’d kind of be like, ‘Whoa,’ because compared to a lot of the other ones, you can tell that they put a lot of money into the robot. And ours is a lot of things that we already had that we had to put all together to create this.”
Rogue Rangers Julian Garcia, left, watches as the robot shoots the PVC pipe onto the makeshift structure simulating a coral reef, while his teammates Ginobili Ribera and Jacqueline Gonzalez operate the heavy robot Monday, April 21, 2025, at the McAllen Elks Lodge. (Omar Zapata | The Monitor)Ginobili, Rivera’s son, said he has been around the competition most of his life and finally had the opportunity to compete at the highest level.
“My highlight of the competition was seeing all the robots compete … seeing the best of the best robots against each other,” he said.
Meeting with half the team and coaches at the McAllen Elks Lodge on Monday, the students showcased their hard work by demonstrating the capabilities of their robot, which weighs more than 100 pounds.
The robot took about six weeks to design and build and has withstood six weeks of competition.
The process of setting up the robot and making sure everything worked correctly was a moving system of students, from connecting the power source to making sure all mechanisms function.
The robot itself is operated by two students. One drives the robot, while the other operates the shooting mechanism to place PVC pipes onto the makeshift coral reefs. Other students are on standby like a pit crew for NASCAR waiting to fix or tweak any issue.
The students presented communication and problem-solving skills when an issue came up with one of the pulley systems and just as they have been trained to do, they sprung into action finding out what is wrong and exactly what is needed to fix it.
“We’re still a young team and there’s a lot of room for growth,” Rivera said. “I think we’re going to become bigger and stronger and come back ready … We’re a small team, but I think we’re mighty, and we have a lot of work to continue doing but we (are) just kind of scratching the surface of all this. I think it’s good for the Valley to have a team at this level represent at this high-caliber level, but we have goals for next year.”
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