Piper High’s Team Stealth 1802 recently competed at the 2025 FIRST Robotics Missouri-Kansas State Championship, held June 6–8 at North Kansas City High School. FIRST Robotics is not a robot-fighting show but a global STEM competition where high school students design, build, and program robots to play a new engineering challenge each season.
This year’s game, Reefscape, tasked teams with maneuvering robots to collect plastic “coral” pipes and foam “algae” balls, scoring points by placing them in floor and barge goals. All of this had to be done within a fast-paced three-minute match emphasizing precision, strategy, and teamwork.
Team Stealth finished qualification rounds ranked 15th out of 27 teams, with a 6–7 record (thebluealliance.com). Highlights included Match 5, where their alliance scored 52 points against a top-seeded trio—Team Eagle Eyed (8825) from Kansas City, MO; Ursuline Bearbotics (6391) from St. Louis; and W.R.A.T.H. (1847) from Wyandotte High School, Kansas City, KS. In Match 16, Team Stealth’s alliance achieved a thrilling 176–135 victory, one of the highest scores of the weekend.
Their strong qualification performance earned Team Stealth the first pick for Alliance 7, teaming up with STING (5098) from Blue Springs South High School and RoboChargers (2457) from William Jewell College/Lee’s Summit (chiefdelphi.com). In Playoff Round 1, Alliance 7 faced off against Team Titanium (1986) from Lee’s Summit, Staley Robotics (10453) from North Kansas City High, and CTC Inspire (5801) from Independence, MO, falling 182–69 (thebluealliance.com). Moving to the lower bracket, Alliance 12—led by Crazy Train (757) from Newton Senior High, The FBI – FIRST Bots of Independence (1723), and Panther Robotics (1108) from Paola High School—ended Team Stealth’s run with a 153–99 defeat.
“Our students committed countless hours to design and programming while balancing academics and athletics,” said Stephan Brumbaugh, Piper High School’s robotics head coach. “They also mentored younger teams and helped launch our new high school robotics lab. Our FTC team advanced to the Missouri/Kansas Championship for the first time in program history—competing against the top teams from both states.
“During FRC season, the team showed real grit. Despite limited funding, they built a strong, competitive robot and held their own at every event. I’m incredibly proud of how our students performed—not just in competition, but in their leadership, resilience, and the example they set for our entire program, as well as representing the best of Piper as a whole.”
Despite the playoff losses, Team Stealth’s robot averaged approximately 103 points per qualification match, showcasing consistent autonomous scoring and strong endgame climbs (frc-events.firstinspires.org). Even under intense playoff pressure, their alliance competed admirably against tough opponents.
Closing their season at MoKan, Team Stealth earned respect for solid robot performance, strategic alliance selection, and a strong regional showing. With the 2025 season complete, the team is now focused on mentoring new students, engaging with the community, and gearing up for the next competitive season.
