This is an underdog story.

The robotics team at KHS, the Hybrid Hornets, spent Friday, March 11 and Saturday, March 12 at Kettering, participating in the First Robotics competition.

Their robot had to complete a variety of tasks for points, including making “baskets” with over-sized tennis balls in two tiers of openings, pushing balls to their human player to reload or shoot a basket from outside the playing field, and climb a set of monkey bars at different heights.

The team, labeled and known as 5150 at the competition, started the day Friday with three wins, but a machine malfunction in the third round that impaired the intake system limited the team to playing defense.

Because they had few scoring opportunities, 5150 quickly fell through the ranks, ending up 30th out of 33 at the end of the qualifying matches.

This wasn’t their only disadvantage, their small team and lack of funding were a struggle all through the build.

Junior John Sidebotham VI noted the difference in performance between teams that had higher participation and more money.

“If you pay attention to the machine parts and coding… It’s just not a coincidence.” said Sidebotham.

Their only opportunity for advancement became being selected in the elimination rounds- where the top eight teams form permanent alliances with two other teams, creating the tiers for playoff matches.

When asked what a top eight team would see in 5150, advisor Dylan McIntire was optimistic.

“They’d see that these kids are working really hard.” Said McIntire.

In a turn of events that surprised some team members, 5150 was a second pick by the second seeded team during eliminations, creating the three team alliance including the Davison “House of Cards” and the Whitmore Lake “Trobots”.

Senior Thomas Taylor, the team’s “human player” was surprised to say the least.

“I did not expect us to make it to playoffs.” Said Taylor.

McIntire was less shocked, and knew that the team’s strong capacity for defense would get them into the playoff matches, but he didn’t anticipate doing so well.

“With the way we performed I didn’t think we would get ranked so high.” Said McIntire.

After the alliances were confirmed, some modifications were made to the bot, “Airbuzz,” so they could shift their focus to defense and climbing, while the other two teams in the alliance scored the points.

5150’s alliance was successful in their match-ups against the number seven seed alliance, then the sixth, and went on to play the number one seed team in finals, played best two-out-of-three.

Sidebotham insisted they wait to take a team picture until they were holding the blue banner that meant they won.

“We’re doing better and better.” Said Sidebotham.

The Hybrid Hornets’ alliance won the first round, with a score of 76 to 63.

Excitement was palpable in the air at this point, with the crowd on their feet and the players struggling to stand still before their next round. Winning the next round meant placing first in the competition.

The next and final round was lower scoring on both sides, and was the final win for 5150’s alliance by a score of 65 to 47.

This was senior Thomas Taylor’s first year on the team, and an eye opener.

“I did not expect robotics to be so intense,” said Taylor, “We went from 30th out of 33 teams to win the whole dang thing.”

This win means an almost guaranteed chance of going to states, depending on their performance at Mason High School later this month.

Senior and bot driver Jacob Callahan didn’t have much to say, but was proud of their performance, saying only that “Defense means Championships.”