C-S PantherBot coach Chad Schau is pictured with some of the club members working on the revamped robot the team will take to the State Championships at Saginaw Valley State University April 16th-18th.
By Bruce Rolfe
Equipped with a revamped robot and coming off impressive performances at two district competitions, the Climax-Scotts PantherBots will face another new experience on a bigger stage in its first year as a robotics club by competing at the FRC State Championship event at Saginaw Valley State University April 16th-18th.
The PantherBots are coached by Chad Schau, and assisted by Adam Audette.
The local robotics team finished 6th overall at the Brooklyn District competition and fourth at the Battle Creek Lakeview District competition.
The points the PantherBots secured at the two district events qualified C-S for the FRC State Championship at SVSU.
The top 160 teams in the state will be competing at the State Championships.
“It's going to be a different competition. A lot of the robots are going to be way more capable. So it's going to be way more competitive. But it’s the same game,” observed Schau.
Knowing that most other teams will be equipped with robots capable of doing more then what the PantherBot original robot was capable of doing, the PantherBots revamped their robot over a short period of time for the State Championship.
Named Scorpion by the PantherBots, the completely revamped robot can do much more than the previous robot did.
Schau said the PantherBots were gifted swerve drive modules by the Battle Creek Harper Creek Robotics team. The new drive train system allows the PantherBot robot to move in any direction at any time. The swerve drive makes the new robot more mobile and gives it the ability to retrieve balls quicker as well. With a capacity of holding 35 balls compared to 16 previously, the new robot can hold over twice as many balls.
The revamped robot can shoot the balls faster into the hopper and climb faster. All enhancements are designed to secure more points.
Schau said the previous robot could shoot one ball approximately every second, however he estimated the revamped robot can shoot five balls every second.
“We knew if we were going to go to that level, we wanted to bring something a little bit more competitive. We had issues with driving. We had issues with picking up balls and shooting and how much we could carry when we did pick them up. And we've addressed every single one of those,” explained Schau, who said the group has installed a second motor that will allow the robot to remain at the same speed while performing tasks.
He said the group improved the camera sensor on the robot so it can auto aim at the QR code that is located on the hopper the robots shoot balls into.
“When we push a button, no matter where we are, if it can see those (QR code) in its field of view, it'll snap to it and point at it, no matter what. It'll always be pointing at it. So the whole time you're driving left, right, front, back, it's going to point right at that. Ready to shoot,” said Schau who said the group has programmed the robot to measure the distance the robot is from the hopper, adjusting the speed the robot will shoot at different distances instead of guessing the distance the robot is from the hopper.
“This by far, in every way, is a better robot. We’re going to this competition with some guns a blazing,” said the PantherBot coach.
Both PantherBot operators, junior Aiden Klusman and 8th grader Jaxson Damm, are big fans of the new drive system as well.
“Instead of having to turn wherever you want to go, you can drive in any direction. You don’t have to turn. It takes a lot less time, makes it easier to play defense on the other teams,” said Klusman.
“I think we’re going to do really good. I’m looking forward to our new shooter and new drive train. Before we were really limited with our drive train, because we could only go in one direction at a time. Now with this new drive we have way more movement, we can do better defense, our shooting will be better. We also have an upgraded shooter which we can shoot about three, almost four times as fast as we did before so that will allow us to score more points just as an individual team. Our climber has been rebuilt. Works just as well as it did before, maybe better because it takes up less room,” adds Damm.
Schau said the scoring at the State Championship will be basically the same format used at the district competitions.
The objective is to have the robot deposit as many balls (called fuel) into a hopper (called a hub) as possible to score points, climb pull up bars and perform other tasks in a set amount of time to secure more points.
The team can also secure points by having team members successfully throw balls into the hub.
Another part of the competition is autonomous. The team wrote code using java script, making the robot autonomous. The coding the group wrote instructs the robot to perform different maneuvers that score points. Once the team hits go, the robot does the rest of the work and hopefully completes each task to score more points.
Teams then return to climb their tower. A robot that can climb to level 1 will earn 10 points. A robot that can climb to level 2 will earn 20 points and a robot that can climb to level 3 will earn 30 points.
Schau said the team will determine the most valuable way to spend the time alloted during each competition to secure the most points.
For a rookie team competing for the first time, Schau said he’s been impressed with the growth.
“The kids are able to perform tasks that before I would be really concerned if they would even understand what the task was on their own performance. So I can tell them, hey, go do this and they can get it done rather than I have to hand walk them through it,” said Schau, who said the students are eager to learn how to solve problems that will help make the robot function more efficiently.
PantherBot team members have also been pleased with the growth that has occurred.
“There’s been growth everywhere for our team. It’s great to see how far we’ve come. Team working-wise, we all have been working together better as a team. Communication, and even down to safety. Together, we’re more safe then we were at the very start of the year when we didn’t know as much of what we were doing. Now, it’s set in stone. Skill-wise, I think all of us have gained skill from this. We all gain knowledge.
This is great,” adds Klusman.
There will be four different competitions taking place at the State Championships.
The PantherBots will not only be competing at the State Championships for a chance to earn more points to qualify for the World Championship in Houston (April 30-May 2), the team will be competing against other Rookie All Star Award recipients for the Rookie All Star Champion Award. The Rookie All Star Champion is automatically invited to the World Championships.
With this being the first year C-S has a competing Robotics Club, Schau said the group is some what surprised, but ecstatic with the amount of success they have achieved.
“Everybody is super excited but nobody really knew what to expect. I kind of know a little bit about what to expect, but I definitely was never expecting to do this well this first year. We've gone above and beyond my expectations for sure. The ability that these kids have had to kind of jump right into it, and perform the way they have, and just be ready to try new things. And the amount of kids that have been involved is crazy,” said Schau.
PantherBot club members are excited about the opportunity to compete at the State Championships in the teams’ first year of competition.
“I think it’s a great opportunity for us to get to go to Saginaw Valley State University,” said Zoie Pankey, a 7th grader at C-S.
“Being a rookie team and making it to States is insane. Very few rookie teams even do good in the qualifying rounds, let alone get to states. I feel like we’re doing phenomenal for our first year,” adds Damm.
Schau said when he was first approached by C-S Jr./Sr. High School Principal Brent Cole if he would be interested in leading and helping start a rookie robotics club, he was all in. He was concerned however the interest may be low.
But the PantherBot coach was pleasantly surprised and 17 C-S students in grades 6th through 11th made a commitment.
“I was worried that I would only have a couple kids that would be willing to kind of step outside the box a little bit and try something completely new. And I've just been blown away with how receptive the student body has been, the community has been. It seems like everybody just is rooting for us and jumps right behind us. It’s pretty awesome,” said Schau, who said his goal for the State Championship is for the team to perform the best they can.
Schau has been impressed how the team has evaluated each performance and solved any problems, always striving to make the robot better.
The PantherBots are currently the highest ranked rookie team in the entire state and ranked 28th overall out of 530 teams in the FIRST in Michigan District (FIM).
Besides qualifying for the State Championship event, the PantherBots have captured some noteworthy awards along the way. The team won four separate team awards - Best Rookie Team, Towering Talent Award, “Recently Unearthed” Award for Best Rookie Team at the 2026 Jackson at Columbia District Event, and the Time Circuit Award - at the Brooklyn event. The PantherBots received the Rookie All Star Award at the Battle Creek Lakeview competition.,
Equipped with a revamped robot and coming off impressive performances at two district competitions, the Climax-Scotts PantherBots will face another new experience on a bigger stage in its first year as a robotics club by competing at the FRC State Championship event at Saginaw Valley State University April 16th-18th.
The PantherBots are coached by Chad Schau, and assisted by Adam Audette.
The local robotics team finished 6th overall at the Brooklyn District competition and fourth at the Battle Creek Lakeview District competition.
The points the PantherBots secured at the two district events qualified C-S for the FRC State Championship at SVSU.
The top 160 teams in the state will be competing at the State Championships.
“It's going to be a different competition. A lot of the robots are going to be way more capable. So it's going to be way more competitive. But it’s the same game,” observed Schau.
Knowing that most other teams will be equipped with robots capable of doing more then what the PantherBot original robot was capable of doing, the PantherBots revamped their robot over a short period of time for the State Championship.
Named Scorpion by the PantherBots, the completely revamped robot can do much more than the previous robot did.
Schau said the PantherBots were gifted swerve drive modules by the Battle Creek Harper Creek Robotics team. The new drive train system allows the PantherBot robot to move in any direction at any time. The swerve drive makes the new robot more mobile and gives it the ability to retrieve balls quicker as well. With a capacity of holding 35 balls compared to 16 previously, the new robot can hold over twice as many balls.
The revamped robot can shoot the balls faster into the hopper and climb faster. All enhancements are designed to secure more points.
Schau said the previous robot could shoot one ball approximately every second, however he estimated the revamped robot can shoot five balls every second.
“We knew if we were going to go to that level, we wanted to bring something a little bit more competitive. We had issues with driving. We had issues with picking up balls and shooting and how much we could carry when we did pick them up. And we've addressed every single one of those,” explained Schau, who said the group has installed a second motor that will allow the robot to remain at the same speed while performing tasks.
He said the group improved the camera sensor on the robot so it can auto aim at the QR code that is located on the hopper the robots shoot balls into.
“When we push a button, no matter where we are, if it can see those (QR code) in its field of view, it'll snap to it and point at it, no matter what. It'll always be pointing at it. So the whole time you're driving left, right, front, back, it's going to point right at that. Ready to shoot,” said Schau who said the group has programmed the robot to measure the distance the robot is from the hopper, adjusting the speed the robot will shoot at different distances instead of guessing the distance the robot is from the hopper.
“This by far, in every way, is a better robot. We’re going to this competition with some guns a blazing,” said the PantherBot coach.
Both PantherBot operators, junior Aiden Klusman and 8th grader Jaxson Damm, are big fans of the new drive system as well.
“Instead of having to turn wherever you want to go, you can drive in any direction. You don’t have to turn. It takes a lot less time, makes it easier to play defense on the other teams,” said Klusman.
“I think we’re going to do really good. I’m looking forward to our new shooter and new drive train. Before we were really limited with our drive train, because we could only go in one direction at a time. Now with this new drive we have way more movement, we can do better defense, our shooting will be better. We also have an upgraded shooter which we can shoot about three, almost four times as fast as we did before so that will allow us to score more points just as an individual team. Our climber has been rebuilt. Works just as well as it did before, maybe better because it takes up less room,” adds Damm.
Schau said the scoring at the State Championship will be basically the same format used at the district competitions.
The objective is to have the robot deposit as many balls (called fuel) into a hopper (called a hub) as possible to score points, climb pull up bars and perform other tasks in a set amount of time to secure more points.
The team can also secure points by having team members successfully throw balls into the hub.
Another part of the competition is autonomous. The team wrote code using java script, making the robot autonomous. The coding the group wrote instructs the robot to perform different maneuvers that score points. Once the team hits go, the robot does the rest of the work and hopefully completes each task to score more points.
Teams then return to climb their tower. A robot that can climb to level 1 will earn 10 points. A robot that can climb to level 2 will earn 20 points and a robot that can climb to level 3 will earn 30 points.
Schau said the team will determine the most valuable way to spend the time alloted during each competition to secure the most points.
For a rookie team competing for the first time, Schau said he’s been impressed with the growth.
“The kids are able to perform tasks that before I would be really concerned if they would even understand what the task was on their own performance. So I can tell them, hey, go do this and they can get it done rather than I have to hand walk them through it,” said Schau, who said the students are eager to learn how to solve problems that will help make the robot function more efficiently.
PantherBot team members have also been pleased with the growth that has occurred.
“There’s been growth everywhere for our team. It’s great to see how far we’ve come. Team working-wise, we all have been working together better as a team. Communication, and even down to safety. Together, we’re more safe then we were at the very start of the year when we didn’t know as much of what we were doing. Now, it’s set in stone. Skill-wise, I think all of us have gained skill from this. We all gain knowledge.
This is great,” adds Klusman.
There will be four different competitions taking place at the State Championships.
The PantherBots will not only be competing at the State Championships for a chance to earn more points to qualify for the World Championship in Houston (April 30-May 2), the team will be competing against other Rookie All Star Award recipients for the Rookie All Star Champion Award. The Rookie All Star Champion is automatically invited to the World Championships.
With this being the first year C-S has a competing Robotics Club, Schau said the group is some what surprised, but ecstatic with the amount of success they have achieved.
“Everybody is super excited but nobody really knew what to expect. I kind of know a little bit about what to expect, but I definitely was never expecting to do this well this first year. We've gone above and beyond my expectations for sure. The ability that these kids have had to kind of jump right into it, and perform the way they have, and just be ready to try new things. And the amount of kids that have been involved is crazy,” said Schau.
PantherBot club members are excited about the opportunity to compete at the State Championships in the teams’ first year of competition.
“I think it’s a great opportunity for us to get to go to Saginaw Valley State University,” said Zoie Pankey, a 7th grader at C-S.
“Being a rookie team and making it to States is insane. Very few rookie teams even do good in the qualifying rounds, let alone get to states. I feel like we’re doing phenomenal for our first year,” adds Damm.
Schau said when he was first approached by C-S Jr./Sr. High School Principal Brent Cole if he would be interested in leading and helping start a rookie robotics club, he was all in. He was concerned however the interest may be low.
But the PantherBot coach was pleasantly surprised and 17 C-S students in grades 6th through 11th made a commitment.
“I was worried that I would only have a couple kids that would be willing to kind of step outside the box a little bit and try something completely new. And I've just been blown away with how receptive the student body has been, the community has been. It seems like everybody just is rooting for us and jumps right behind us. It’s pretty awesome,” said Schau, who said his goal for the State Championship is for the team to perform the best they can.
Schau has been impressed how the team has evaluated each performance and solved any problems, always striving to make the robot better.
The PantherBots are currently the highest ranked rookie team in the entire state and ranked 28th overall out of 530 teams in the FIRST in Michigan District (FIM).
Besides qualifying for the State Championship event, the PantherBots have captured some noteworthy awards along the way. The team won four separate team awards - Best Rookie Team, Towering Talent Award, “Recently Unearthed” Award for Best Rookie Team at the 2026 Jackson at Columbia District Event, and the Time Circuit Award - at the Brooklyn event. The PantherBots received the Rookie All Star Award at the Battle Creek Lakeview competition.,
Pictured are some of the C-S PantherBot team members that will compete at the State Championships at Saginaw Valley State University.
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