VEX team 3236A

I’ve been on VEX teams since 2021. In middle school I ended up leading the team, and we made it to the VEX World Championship twice. In high school I captain team 3236A (2025-26), a team of 8.

This page is about the Push Back season and how the team runs. For the FRC team I’m helping restart, see Tri-County FRC.

The problem

Every VEX season has a new game. The field, the scoring objects and the rules all change, so last year’s robot is mostly scrap. Each season you have to figure out what wins, build a robot that does it, write code for it, and drive it well under pressure.

You also have to do that with a team. Eight students. The robot is only as good as how the team splits the work.

The solution

As captain for Push Back, I led three things:

• The design process: reading the game, picking a robot concept, and getting a driving base built early.
• The code: C++ on EZ-Template, so time goes into routes and mechanisms instead of drive math.
• Competition strategy and execution: which autonomous routine to run, what to tell our alliance partner, and what to change between matches.

One or two sentences on what 3236A’s Push Back robot does and how it scores

How it works

Design process

How your design process really went this season, and one design you threw out and why Photos to add: the 3236A robot in CAD (Fig. 1) and mid-build on the bench (Fig. 2) Which CAD tool the team uses for the robot, and who models it

Code

I write our code in C++ on EZ-Template, an open-source library for VEX V5 built on PROS. It handles the drivetrain PID control and the on-screen autonomous selector.

Why use it: drive control is the same problem every season. A tested library for it means my time goes into autonomous routes and mechanism code, which is where the game actually changes.

Sensors on the robot, how many autons you keep, and how you tune them

Competition strategy

At events I handle strategy: picking the autonomous routine for each match based on our alliance and opponents, talking through the plan with our partner before the match, and deciding what to fix between matches when something breaks.

Do you drive? Who scouts, and how (paper, spreadsheet, app)?

Testing

How you test: practice field time, how you check an auton is reliable (runs in a row?), driver practice schedule

Results

Middle school: led my team to the VEX World Championship twice.

Photo to add: your middle school team at VEX Worlds Years, team number, division, and how you placed at each Worlds

High school, Push Back season: captain of 3236A.

Best finish, awards, skills scores, any qualifier results

Season	Level	What I did
2021 to 2022	Middle school	game, team, role, result
2022 to 2023	Middle school	game, team, role, result
2023 to 2024	High school	game, team, role, result
2024 to 2025	High school	game, team, role, result
2025 to 2026	High school	Push Back. Captain of 3236A, led design, code and strategy. result

What I learned

Two or three real lessons from captaining, ideally one specific moment, like a disagreement on the team and how it got settled

My role

I’m the captain. For Push Back I led the design process, wrote the code, ran competition strategy, and ran the team at events.

How the 8 of you split the work (builders, coders, driver, notebook) and teammates’ first names

What’s next

Are you doing VEX this season too? If so, the game and the team’s goal