BX Off-Season
With the start of the new season, let's recap the team's offseason and all the activities we’ve been doing the past 7 months.
May
Open House
On May 5th, our team had our annual team Open House. At this event, all of Bedford’s K-12 FIRST teams did recruiting for members of the 2025-2026 FIRST season where kids interested could have a chance to speak with coaches and see what might interest them. Team 1023 had demonstrations of our robot from the 2025 season going for our visitors. All of the BX subgroups, from Media to CAD, and their members put on presentations of their work stations to show kids what it’s like to do FIRST.
Lead Interviews
Following the Open House and sign ups, the team coaches conducted interviews to find new leads for the team’s subgroups. Many students interviewed in front of a committee of Coaches and Senior Mentors, who announced their decisions at the team’s Award Show Banquet
Award Show Banquet
On May 20th, the team held the annual Award Show Banquet. There, the team Coaches, Mentors, Captains, and Leads award each student a special custom award. The team also handed out rewards to students who met Travel, Junior-Varsity, and Varsity. Our more prestigious award winners, like Make-It-Loud and Best Rookie, were given trophies, along with our Mentor-Rockstar and Student-Rockstar winners (Karl Kazmirzki and Olivia Szczepanik).
Pictured: (Left) Olivia Szczepanik student rockstar winner. (Middle) Nick Bird award designer. (Right) Karl Kazmirzki mentor rockstar winner.
June
Sponsor Thank-Yous
In June, our team made unique framed thank you certificates for every single one of our sponsors from the 2025 season and delivered them to every local sponsor to show them our gratitude for their support.
ALRO gave some of our students a tour when we gave them their sponsor thank you.
Impact and Media Preparations
During this month, the Media and Impact Subgroups took the time to create a 6-month plan for their group’s activities and project. Media planned future projects for our team’s social media and Impact planned events to hold over the offseason for outreach.
National Advocacy Conference
During the end of June, Our teams head coach, Dennis Costlow, and Crew Chief, Grace Fackelman, went to Washington, DC, along with many other teams in FIRST and Vex, to advocate for bills, like 99H Title 4, which sets aside government money for Stem programs and afterschool Stem activities.
July
IRI
BX started July off by competing at the Indiana Robotics Invitational event. For this event, teams were invited based on their performance at worlds to allow them to compete against each other with the previous season’s robots one last time. 1023 competed in the Qualifications matches and ended with a 4-5-0 win streak. Our team finished at Rank 26. At the end of the event, we unfortunately didn’t get picked for one of the 8 Alliances for elimination matches.
1023 competing in a match at the Indiana Robotics Invitational event.
Fair Parking
For the Monroe County Fair, Bedford Express did a fundraiser where our students volunteered to work the car parking outside of the event. Our Students and Mentors worked from 9am-8pm assisting in the parking arrangements of all the guests at the county fair.
August
Stem Camp
During the week of August 18th, 1023 hosted a three-day day camp, called “Stem Camp” that focused on introducing kids grades K-6 to Stem. Our students hosted activities like arts and craft and showed presentations themed around creation and engineering, hoping to help kids realize if they have a passion in Stem.
Kids got to experience manipulating the robot at camp.
Damsel in Defense
On August 25th, our team hosted an event for women and girls in our community teaching them self defense techniques at our robotics center to help them better feel safe.
September
FTC kickoff
On September 6th, Bedford Express hosted the FTC Season Kick-Off. At this event, our subgroups had stations with presentations of their work to show to every FTC team to inspire them to participate in FRC. After the presentations, all the teams watched the FTC 2025-2026 Game Reveal livestream and started planning on prototypes for their robots.
October
MAC Conference
On October 3rd, Bedford Express sent 4 student representatives to Lansing, Michigan to attend the MAC Conference, which advocated for the passing of bills securing government funding after STEM programs
Goonettes
From October 11th-12th, Bedford FRC Teams 1023 and 8423 competed at the Goonettes Invitational off-season event. At this event, drive teams and pit crews were entirely female which helped encourage more female involvement in FIRST robotics and STEM. This yearly event is hosted every year by FRC Team 8604 Goon Squad at Woodhaven High School. Bedford Express played through Qualification matches and ended at Rank 11 and a win streak of 8-6-0, being named Alliance 7 Captain during Alliance Selection. For our alliance, we choose FRC Teams 245, 548, and 6642. Alliance 7 made it to Round 2 Match 6 before being eliminated by Alliance 3. Team 8423 Next Express finished Qualification matches at Rank 34 and a win streak of 3-9-0.
Bedford Express girls Leah Ma, Abby Marckel, and Brenyn Hebert talking strategy.
Trunk-Or-Treat
On October 23rd (10/23), Bedford Express participated at the annual Bedford High School Trunk-or-Treat, passing out candy to attending kids for the Halloween season.
November
Railroad Rally
From October 7th-8th, Bedford Express hosted the FTC State Qualifier event for the local Districts’ FTC teams at Bedford Senior High School. On Friday, the students did setup from right after school to 9am at night. The following day, our team managed the competition which ended in one of Bedford’s 5 FTC Teams, 5237 Loose Screws, and their alliance winning the competition and Qualifying for the FTC State Championship.
Set up for a finals match at the FTC Qualifier.
December
Christmas in Ida
On December 6th, Bedford Express walked in the annual Christmas in Ida parade at Ida, Michigan. The students decorated the robot trailer, along with creating a custom float for the event, incorporating robots from previous years. During the parade, students passed out bags full of Candy, Stickers, and Spirit Items to the kids attending.
We decorated old robots with lights and created a Bedford Express sleigh for the parade
BX Big Sisters
On December 7th, BX hosted the first monthly BX Big Sisters meeting, which’s purpose is to get more FTC girls excited about FRC. At this month’s meeting, the girls decorated Christmas Cookies, watched Christmas movies, and made friendship bracelets.
FLL Event
The following Saturday, Bedford Express hosted an event for FLL Explore students at Smith Road Elementary. BX students judged the teams for their team posters, stations, robots, codes, team spirit, conduct, etc. Students also hosted STEM related activities for the kids with the goals of creation and creativity. At the end of the event, trophies were handed out to the FLL Teams.
Lock-In
Later that day, Bedford Express hosted a team bonding event where students stayed at Smith Road Elementary from 7pm-7am. At the start, the students rearranged the center to the Build Season setups where subgroups created their work stations for the build season. After that, Students all did Christmas themed activities like a White Elephant Gift Exchange and tower stacking minigames. The rest of the night, students played video games, board games, and watched movies to pass the night.
January
BX Big Sisters
On January 3rd, Forestview lanes hosted our second monthly BX Big Sisters event. There, they loaned us lanes for our girls to play on. After that, our FIRST members enjoyed pizza.
The FTC and FRC girls at our 2nd get to together.
Kick-Off
This Saturday, our team hosted our annual FRC Kick-off watch party event. That morning, we gathered our teammates, sponsors, and local community to watch the FRC Game Reveal livestream. After the livestream, we did team exercises to help get our students familiar with the game’s rules.
