Smith-Cotton High School's Team SCREAM Wins Arkansas Regional Robotics Competition

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Team SCREAM, the competitive robotics team from Smith-Cotton High School, won the FIRST Robotics Arkansas Regional competition held March 19-21 in Searcy, Arkansas. The team joined the Highlanders from Fort Collins, Colorado, and the Hope BotCats from Hope, Arkansas on the No. 1 seeded alliance, which went undefeated in the playoffs and posted the regional high score. With this win, Team SCREAM qualifies for the FIRST World Championships in April.

Why it matters

The FIRST Robotics Competition is a prestigious event that showcases the engineering and problem-solving skills of high school students. Team SCREAM's victory demonstrates the strength of their program and the dedication of their students and mentors. Qualifying for the World Championships is a significant achievement that will bring recognition to the school and inspire other students to get involved in STEM activities.

The details

This year's FIRST competition theme is 'Rebuilt,' which calls for robots to gather yellow balls and shoot them into a hopper. Part of Team SCREAM's strategy was to improve the efficiency of their robot's ball collection and shooting mechanisms. In the playoffs, the Hope BotCats played a key defensive role, making it more difficult for opponents' robots to score and helping to feed additional balls to Team SCREAM and the Highlanders to boost their scoring.

• The FIRST Robotics Arkansas Regional was held from March 19-21, 2026 in Searcy, Arkansas.
• Team SCREAM will compete in the Greater Kansas City Regional on April 9-11, 2026.

What’s next

Team SCREAM and Team SCREAM Jr. will compete in the Greater Kansas City Regional on April 9-11, 2026 as they prepare for the FIRST World Championships in April.