Gracious YouthGracious YouthFTC Team #16249 · Excaliper

News & Events

From the Workshop

Competition results, event announcements, and updates from the team.

Excaliper Presented at the FIRST World Championship
2025

Excaliper Presented at the FIRST World Championship

Team #16249, Excaliper, presented to teams at the 2025 FIRST Championship in Houston, Texas. After a season of qualifying events, our students and mentors traveled to meet alongside thousands of teams from across the globe, presenting our drive coach strategy. The trip was a chance to trade ideas, pins, and stories with teams from other countries, tour the pit area of some of the most creative robots in the world, and see firsthand what it takes to build a program that competes at this level. We came home with new friendships, fresh engineering ideas, and a renewed drive to keep pushing our team forward next season.

Building More Than Robots — Our STEAM Vision for Volusia County
2026

Building More Than Robots — Our STEAM Vision for Volusia County

We are launching a new mission: to build Volusia County's first youth STEAM Hub — where art + technology meet. We're a 7-season, 42-event FIRST Tech Challenge team. We were Winning Alliance Captain at Tesla Regional, Leadership Finalists + Judges Choice at Florida State Championship 2025, and presented at the FIRST World Championship in Houston. Gracious Youth 501(c)(3) has paid our 2025-2026 registration so any Volusia student grades 7-12 can join at no cost. We still build from a mentor's porch and spare bedroom. Our next goal is to move to a permanent space and bring free STEAM learning to more students.

Team Attends the 2021 VMA Robot Brawl
Recent Season

Team Attends the 2021 VMA Robot Brawl

Several of our team members attended the VMA (Volusia Manufacturing Association) Robot Brawl at historic Jackie Robinson Stadium on October 2, 2021. While there, we got to see old friends and make new ones, while continuing to learn about how robotics is used in everyday life.

Sharing STEM at Maker Faire
Recent Season

Sharing STEM at Maker Faire

Our team attended Maker Faire in Orlando, bringing our robot for others to drive. We spent the day there and over 100 people drove our robot. People of all ages took a turn and had fun, and we explained to them about FIRST and what we do in our robotics competitions. We learned our robot was very durable, surviving all of those people driving it.