Trojan Power Robotics closes third season with growing momentum
A Crystal Falls robotics team went 12-16, reached playoffs at two district events, and kept building support for a program still in its third season.
Trojan Power Robotics 9674 finished its third FIRST Robotics Competition season with a 12-16 record and 46 district points, a sign that the Crystal Falls team is gaining ground while still facing older, more established programs across Michigan. For Forest Park School students, the results point to more than wins and losses: they show a young team learning how to build, adjust and compete on a statewide stage.
The strongest performance came at the FIRST in Michigan District event at Lake Superior State University, held March 26-28. Trojan Power finished 13th with a 7-7 record, earned the role of Alliance 8 Captain and advanced into the double-elimination playoff bracket. That run produced 24 district points and showed the robot could hold up over a full weekend of matches. The team added another step forward in Escanaba, where it finished 22nd with a 5-9 record, was selected as the first pick of Alliance 7 and picked up 22 more district points.
The team’s growth matters in Iron County because FIRST Robotics demands the same skills employers look for in manufacturing, engineering and technical trades: design, troubleshooting, teamwork and the ability to make fast decisions under pressure. Trojan Power is still a young program, with a rookie year of 2024, but its public team page lists Forest Park School as its home, along with sponsors GEI Consultants, the Crystal Falls Area Community Foundation and Forest Park School. The 2026 robot was named Indiana Bones, a small detail that reflects a program building its own identity as it builds technical experience.
Community backing has helped keep that momentum alive. A fundraiser at the Crystal Theatre was sponsored by Northern Interstate Bank and Bigari ACE Hardware, with proceeds aimed at supporting the team’s 2026 competition season. The team’s earlier hardware also tells the story of its rise: it won a Rookie All-Star Award in its first season and two Creativity Awards in its second. In FIRST terms, those honors recognize a strong rookie partnership effort and creative technical work in robot design, construction and strategy.
The season also marked steady progress against the numbers from earlier years. Trojan Power went 11-17 in 2024 and 5-22 in 2025, when it earned a Creativity Award in Escanaba and reached the Midland playoffs as the second pick of Alliance 5. By the end of 2026, it had competed in three seasons and six events, with three awards on its record. For a rural district, that is more than a robotics resume. It is a local workforce pipeline taking shape in Crystal Falls, one build season at a time.
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