What we're doing
2026
Great Northern Regional Wrap UP
The Kelliher Bog Bots, Team 6453 loaded up the robot, pit, toolboxes and supplies into the trailer and left Kelliher Public School at 3:30pm on Wednesday March 11th. After a quick stop at Village One Stop, our team of eight kids and two coaches headed west to the Great Northern Regional at the Alerus Center in Grand Forks North Dakota. 3hrs later the team arrived at the center and began the task of unloading the robot, pit and supplies into our designated pit location for the competition. After the pit was set up and everything was in place for tomorrows practice matches, the team left the Alerus Center for an enjoyable meal at Pizza Ranch before heading to our hotel, the Holliday Inn Express & Suites, for relaxation and a good night's sleep.
Thursday Morning came bright and early for our team of nine. Once everyone had a good breakfast under their belt, our team left for the day's adventures at the Alerus Center. The day was filled with practice matches, adjustments to the robot's intake and shooing mechanism, practicing with field elements on the playground and answering questions posed to us by alliance partners and fellow competing teams at the event. Overall, the day wet quite well for the Kelliher Bog Bots, with the robot preforming as it was designed to and improving in capabilities with each adjustment and knowledge gained by our drivers during the practice matches. When the last practice match was played and the pit cleaned and organize, our team headed out for supper at the Ihop Restaurant next to our hotel. After supper some of our team rested in their rooms while others enjoyed the hotel's pool and hot tub amenities before retiring for the night.
Friday, a day of qualifying matches and the event's opening ceremony, came on the eve of Thursday. With a good breakfast for the day our team headed back to the event and waited in line with the 51 other competing teams for the pits to open. Once the pits were open and our team was able to prep the bot for our first match, we then made our way to the stands for the opening ceremony. In the theme of the event the main MC for the event, Yoji Shimizu, road in on The FIRST Train and greeted everyone in the stands. After Yoji came dignitaries from UND, the city of Grand Forks, and represenitives of senators from both Minnesota and North Dakota. Then when the last words for the opening were said and the event officially kicked off, Our team hurried back to the pit to prepare for our fist qualifying match. Match 6, the first of 6 for the day, came and we were ready for it. In this match we were teamed up with Teams 877 Pi Rho 'Botics from Cando North Dakota, and Team 4239 WARPSPEED from Willmar Minnesota in the bule alliance. During the match our robot was able to run over the bump, gather fuel cells, shoot the cells into our alliance's hub and travers the trench to collect more fuel.
When the buzzer sounded, ending the match our alliance finished strong with a final score of 42 to 98 giving our team a ranked position of 33 out of 51 teams. Undaunted our team kept testing, adjusting, and competing to their full capacity throughout the day. when our last qualifying match, match 51 was over our team cleaned and organized the pit before heading to Chik-fil-a for supper. After supper our team went to Northern Air Action Park for a fun time of trampolines, laser tag, and arcade games. Finally, the team returned to the hotel for one more night's sleep.
Saturday, the last day of the competition came in early, after packing up and checking out, our team headed back to the Alerus Center for the final day of qualifying matches and possibly a chance at the playoffs. In our first match for the day, match 59, our alliance included teams 7677 Bodacious Bulldogs from Swanville Minnesota and 8255 from Rolla North Dakota. During the match our robot preformed beautifully and delivered its share of fuel to the hub and maneuvered the field. In the end our alliance came away with a 194 to 117 win over the red alliance. Two matches latter our team was sitting at a rank of 35 out of 51 teams. After match 77 the event entered the alliance selection for the playoffs and the finals. The top eight teams picked two teams each to build their alliance. when the picking was done our team sat just shy of being a backup robot for one of the alliances. So, our team was able to have lunch, pack up the pit, load the trailer and head back to the school to unload and wrap up our time at the Great Northern Regional.
Our next robotics event will be at the Northern Minnesota Robotics Confrence Competition on October 23rd and 24th 2026 in Perham, Minnesota. Please check back and see how we did.
Thank you to all our sponsors and supporters. With out you none of these experiences would be possible.
Check out our experiences at FRC Worlds in Houston Texas and The Minnesota State Robotics Championship at U of M in Minneapolis Minnesota. Under the Bog Bots Report tab above.
click below to visit the FIRST Robotics website
Community Outreach and involvement
Since COVID-19 The Kelliher Bog Bots have been working on replacing lost avenues for out reach, while improving and monitoring existing areas that we have already established. The following are the avenues that we are currently using to reach out and be involved in our community.
Kelliher Public School
Gatherings and events
The Kelliher Bog Bots Team 6453 Is more than just a First Robotics Competition Team with a name and a number and a Neat or cool Mascot and logo. It is apart of a dedicated small town school that itself is an integral part of a hard working small Northern Minnesota Town. Who both have supported us and took an interest in us from our team's Creation to this current Season. In Return, We, the members and staff of 6453 Do our level best to give back to this school and to this town when and wherever possible. Our give back Ranges From our performance at our School's ROBOT & GAME REVEAL every season, to setting up booths and displays at the community's fairs and carnivals, to having a float in the local Big Bog Festival during the summer. Theses avenues of out reach give us a chance to give back to a school and a community that, as a whole given us a lot.
2018 School Reveal to our future members.
FRC Power UP
2019 pre-School assembly Reveal.
The Future of our Team!
2021 Team display in Kelliher Public School Cafeteria to be viewed by all ages.
2023 health fair booth displaying our accomplishments and our new pit.
BOG BOTS
Presenters
IN May of 2022 Team 6453 was given the opportunity to present to a neighboring high school, Northome School in Northome Minnesota. We were asked to present to Junior high and high school students, to share with them what it is like being apart of the First Robotics Competition. Including, what FIRST offers, What you can learn in FIRST, what it takes to build a robot, how a typical season is laid out and what we have learned together in our six years of being in FIRSTS Robotics. This presentation was put on to help Northome on their information search on starting a team of their own and becoming apart of the Northern Minnesota Robotics Conference.
Our team displaying and explaining our robot Capitan Jack to perspective Northome team Members
Answering questions about the robot and being apart of a First Robotics Competition Team.
BOG BOTS
In Big Bog Festival
In July of 2022 our team put together a float for the Big Bog Festival in Kelliher, Minnesota. We were able to drive our robot ahead of the float with our flag waving proudly. This gave us a chance to be seen by the community and to thank the community for supporting us.
Our team's float before the 2022 Kelliher Big Bog Festival. Ready to be seen by the community