DENHAM SPRINGS — Three Louisiana high school robotics teams are heading to the robotics world championship. One of them is straight out of Denham Springs. 

The official team name is FRC 8044, Denham Venom. The team builds out of the STEM Gym at the Denham Springs High School STEM and Robotics Center. 

Three years ago, the team had never competed in a tournament since it was first established in 2019. Now, this team of 40 students is one of 600 teams going to Houston for the First Robotics World Championship. 

Coached by Danny Thomasson and Daniel Eiland, they say it's a huge accomplishment to see their students clinch the Magnolia Regionals in Laurel, Mississippi, last month and punch their ticket to the Houston tournament. 

"I'm getting chills again, we went and set a new record for the event," said Thomasson. 

Under strict rules and limited time and resources, teams of high school students are challenged to build industrial-size robots to play a difficult field game in alliance with other teams, while also fundraising to meet their goals, designing a team brand, and advancing respect and appreciation for STEM within the local community.

"You have your athletes that can go and play football or you have your bands guys that play instruments or whatever. A lot of times what we are offering is completely out of the box," said Eiland. "It's not only how to build a robot, it's how do you engineer things, it's also how to talk to business managers and CEOs."

With mentors from companies like NASA, the program provides students with more than just the ability to build and program a robot: it helps pave the pathway for future engineers.

Joseph Thompson is in his last year as the driver for the team's robot, Amadeus. He started with Denham Venom as a sophomore and will attend Louisiana Tech University for aviation after graduating. Over the years, he's enjoyed not just helping build the program, but seeing the team's hard work pay off. 

The tournament starts on April 17.

The team is raising money for their trip, you can make donations here. 

Also going to the Championship from Louisiana, team 2992, SS Prometheus, from Mandeville. And team 2080, Torbotics, from Hammond.