May 5, 2025 / A Bonanza Junior/Senior High School robotics team will compete at the VEX Robotics World Championship next week in Dallas, Texas, against top teams from around the world. The team of four seniors -- Owen Thompson, Nathaniel Shull-Smith, Kayden Krautheim, and Aaron Neighbors – on March 22 received an invite to the competition based on their rankings and points throughout the season. They will be competing May 6-8 in the engineering category.

Robotics Coach Spencer Jackson called the invite well-deserved for a team that has shown tremendous growth over the past three to four years. “With each event this team always had a new takeaway,” he said. “Throughout the season the team has done five major rebuilds focusing on weight reduction, primary functions, and innovative techniques. This all resulted from research, trial and error, and testing new theories and techniques.”

The team has raised nearly $7,000 through donations, sponsorships, and fundraisers to pay for travel and competitions costs. “This will be a new experience for team members and we just want to say thank you to everyone who has helped us get here,” Coach Jackson said. “If it wasn't for our amazing staff and our wonderful community in the Klamath Basin this trip wouldn’t be possible. We also would like to thank our teachers and staff for supporting us and working with the team on making sure that academics were still first priority and giving us the tools and skills to perform in class and at competition.”