Four sophomores, two eighth-graders. Two years of FTC under their belts. A season decided by two points.
Team 5713 is the middle team in our program. Most kids who end up on the flagship team — including four of this year's seniors on 4650 — started here. It's where they learn the game.
This year, 5713 was the early surprise.
After the first league meet, they were the top Crusader team — ranked second of seventeen in our league, ahead of the veteran team. They won four of their first five matches. Even more notably, they were the only Crusader team to consistently earn "movement points" — a tournament bonus for leaving the starting line in autonomous mode. They earned that bonus in 10 of 15 matches across the season, the best in our program.
The middle of the season was harder. They slipped to third, then to eighth, hovering near the edge of the playoff cutoff. They lost a tournament qualifying match by one point (75–76). Later they made the alliance playoff bracket — and lost their playoff match by two points (55–57). Two heartbreakers in one weekend.
They came up short of the things they were close to. But what they did over the season is more important than the bracket: they doubled their average scoring output from Meet 1 to Meet 2 (35 points to 70). In a single match at Meet 2, they hit 113 points — the highest single-match score by any Crusader team all league season, tied with the veteran team.
5713's robot is the year-two build — designed by students who, at the start of the season, had exactly one year of FTC experience. The fact that their scoring tripled in the driver-control period over the course of the season tells you what's really happening: kids are learning fast.
This team's drivetrain has been designed and refined by Crusader students since 2022, getting better every season. It's one program: whatever any team designs, builds, or buys is there for all of them to build on.
Earning the "movement RP" 67% of the time sounds small. What it actually means: two robots leaving the starting line cleanly, every match, all season. That's a discipline.
Two matches lost by one and two points. The team came back the next match each time. That's a skill worth more than any single result.
The CNC router, the 3D printers, the workshop — every team draws on the same tools and the same hard-won know-how. Older students help the younger ones, the younger ones grow into the next leaders, and the loop continues.
| Stage | Result |
|---|---|
| Meet 1 | #2 in league (top Crusader team!) |
| Meet 2 | #3 — hit a 113-point match (tied league high) |
| Meet 3 | #8 — scoring stayed strong |
| League Tournament | Made the alliance playoff bracket |
| Playoff match | Lost by 2 points (55–57) |
| Tournament Q1 | Lost by 1 point (75–76) |
| Movement RP | Earned in 10 of 15 matches — best in program |
| Scoring growth | Doubled Meet 1 → Meet 2 (35 → 70 avg) |
| Driver-control growth | Tripled across the season (18 → 55 avg) |
| Season record | 8–7 |
Jacob, a sophomore on 5713, is the younger brother of Zachary — a senior on 4650 who is graduating this May. Zach's path is the path many of our students take: start on 5713 as a freshman, learn the game, move up to 4650 as you grow. Jacob is walking that path now while his brother is finishing it. It's a real thing, watching brothers hand the program off to each other in the same room. It happens more than you'd think.
Two of this team's six members are eighth-graders. They show up multiple times a week and work shoulder-to-shoulder with high-school students who are five years older than them. By the time they're juniors, they will have been in this program for five years. Some of them will be on 4650 by then.
5713 isn't a hand-me-down team. It draws on the same budget, the same tools, and the same parts as every other Crusader team — chassis, motors, electronics, and the things that get used up and replaced. It's one program, and a gift supports all of it.
Gifts to the program help us keep a second team funded at all. Without it, our pipeline of new students has no on-ramp.