Sissonville Middle School drone team qualifies for 2026 regional championship

Sissonville Middle School’s drone team turned a school STEM effort into a regional berth, qualifying for the 2026 ADC Northeast Regional Championship and placing a West Virginia program on one of scholastic drone racing’s biggest stages. The team earned its spot on May 11 and will line up against more than 1,500 other middle schools from the United States and Canada, a scale that shows how quickly drone competition has moved from niche classroom activity to serious youth sport.

The Northeast championship, called Dragonfly, is scheduled for May 14-17 at the Fairmont State University Falcon Center in Fairmont, with middle school competition set for Thursday and Friday, May 14 and 15. That timing matters because the regional field is not open-ended. The Robotics Education & Competition Foundation says regional championship places are earned through official local qualifying events, not scrimmages, and that teams must clear the standards tied to judging, competition logs and skills performance before reaching this level.

For Sissonville, the milestone reflects more than one good outing. Fifth grader Jack Warden said the draw of the activity comes from excitement, flying and making friends, while teacher Beth Harvey pointed to the teamwork and layered skill set the program demands. Mason Poorman captured the technical edge of the sport by noting that even the smallest bit of wind can throw off the code, a reminder that these matches are decided as much by programming and calibration as by stick work in the air.

That combination has helped make the Aerial Drone Competition one of the fastest-growing school STEM contests in the country. RECF describes the format as hands-on learning in drone piloting, programming, documentation, teamwork and problem-solving, built around four missions: Teamwork, Autonomous Flight, Piloting and Communications. The foundation said Mission 2026 registration opened in June 2025, rules were released in September, local qualifying events ran from November through March, and regional championships are being staged from April through June.

The broader numbers underline why Sissonville’s run resonates beyond Kanawha County. RECF said up to 10,000 students in grades 5 through 12 competed in the 2024-25 season across about 42 states, showing a pipeline that now stretches from middle school classrooms to university and workforce pathways. For Sissonville, the regional berth is proof that a team can go from early crashes to championship-level precision, and that the next generation of drone competitors is already here.