Howland Drone Team Wins Trumbull County Championship After Comeback Rebuild

Howland High School’s drone team turned a late repair into a county championship at Warren G. Harding High School, winning the overall Trumbull County Drone Racing League title with a full-package performance that stretched beyond raw speed. Gavin Boyts finished first in head-to-head racing, Shaun Sudol placed second in capture-the-flag, and Reagan Lealand and Emily Siegfried helped the team finish second in presentation, the kind of across-the-board scoring that separates a polished program from a one-off fast lap.

The most striking part of the title run came before the racing even settled in. During testing, a crash damaged a key part, and the team had to complete a full rebuild to get back in action only minutes before disqualification would have ended the day. That kind of recovery matters in drone racing because the sport punishes technical mistakes as quickly as pilot errors. A clean flight still depends on a working frame, solid electronics and a crew that can diagnose trouble under pressure, and Howland had to master all of that in real time.

The victory lands inside a countywide STEM race that has been growing fast. The Trumbull County Educational Service Center has helped turn drone racing into a regular fixture, and the event format now asks students to do more than fly fast. Head-to-head racing rewards precision and nerve, capture-the-flag tests control and decision-making, and the presentation portion rewards how well teams can explain their work. In other words, the sport now mirrors the mix of engineering, communication and execution that schools want students to build for careers in technology, aviation and robotics.

That broader value shows up in the people around the program too. Boyts has said he is interested in information technology and aerospace engineering, a reminder that drone racing is increasingly viewed as a pathway rather than a novelty. A local coach has said these competitions are beginning to draw the same attention robotics has received for years, and Howland’s latest title fits that shift. The team had already won the county crown in 2024 after three matches at Youngstown Regional Airport, and Boyts and Sudol were again among the standouts in 2025. This championship, built on a rebuild and backed by depth, looks less like an upset than proof that Howland’s drone program knows how to keep pace with a rapidly maturing sport.