MCA Robotics is quietly one of the strongest and highest performing programs we have in the building, and Owen Marvel (class of 2022) has been a key part of its success for years.

With nine consecutive trips to the State tournament, two trips all the way to Worlds (placing in the Top 24 out of ~6,000 teams at one outing), and too many instances of awards and recognition to list that extend beyond the arena into areas such as community outreach, Robotics at MCA is an unstoppable force that is also about so much more than just building a robot.

Taking things back to the beginning for Owen and where his love for building came from, he said, "I always enjoyed kind of working with my hands and solving problems." What began with joy found in building LEGO cities and cars slowly turned into a deep passion for all things engineering.

Approaching middle school, both Owen and his family began to be heavily involved in the Robotics program. Owen’s dad, Ed, was Head Coach and he’s still around helping run the program side-by-side with Owen today. And even after graduation, Owen’s decided to continue to help build the program for the next generation that he fell in love with when he was younger.

"I just love it so much," he smiled, reflecting on why he does what he does.

For Owen, returning to help the next wave of Mustangs is all about legacy. "It’s taking my knowledge that I’ve gained,” he began, “[...]. and trying to pass it on to them.”

Owen makes sure to give students room to fail but will step in when it counts. "Not that I don't want them to learn some of the things the hard way,” Owen laughed, “but trying to help them not go through some of the same mistakes we did."

The mistakes that Owen speaks of started back in his sophomore year of high school—the year the team (Chain Reaction) built a mechanical powerhouse destined to win State and possibly head to Worlds.

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We had arguably the best robot in the entire state.

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Then, the technology betrayed them. Leading up to the State tournament, Chain Reaction was ahead of all the competition. In the actual tournament itself, however, things just didn’t seem to go their way.

"Every match, our control system disconnected," Owen said, and it wasn't until the elimination rounds that they realized a faulty camera was the culprit for crashing the entire system. A simple fix of unplugging the camera fixed the issue, but by then it was too late.

"We were super, super annoyed, and we were pretty confident that if that wouldn't have happened, we likely would have won State."

Shortly after such a tough State tournament appearance, the pandemic hit and the World Championship was canceled until further notice. Such a back-to-back heartbreak could have dismantled the program, but instead, for Chain Reaction, it lit a fire in the team to work even harder and push even higher than they had ever been before.

By the time Owen hit senior year, with Worlds now open once again post-pandemic, Chain Reaction was a scrappy team of seven of MCA’s finest ready to take the competition head on. Team Chain Reaction represented a true David and Goliath story—a small private school going up against massive district giants, fighting for a low number of tournament spots.

"We had nothing to lose," Owen said.

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That was when we were here countless hours [...] just the determination to take all the things that we've learned and saying, 'This is our goal,' and doing whatever we had to do to achieve that goal. And ultimately, we did.

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Against all odds, that seven-person crew punched their ticket to Worlds, making school history in the process.

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Flash forward to today and Owen is back in the lab. He’s no longer competing as a student, but instead coaching the next generation on the sidelines—and he's quick to point out that there is room on the team for more than just future engineers.

"I like to remind people that you don't have to necessarily be interested in engineering or coding or CADing, like the technical side,” Owen said. “There's the whole creative design component to it.”

“ Maybe you're really interested in marketing and graphic design or you're super interested in building connections within the STEM community. There's a whole side of that to the team. A lot of people don't necessarily know about that and they think, 'Oh, yeah, I need to know math or I need to know how to put nuts and bolts together.' We can always teach you how to do anything [...]."

"You have to have a well-balanced team, right?” Owen began. “You can't have eight engineers, because all they see is the engineer side [...]. If you want to be a competitive team, and especially with how today's advancement model works, you have to be way more well-balanced. So, having those types of students is critical to the long-term success of the program."

Through its rich history and fierce tenacity spurred on by the Marvel family, Robotics at MCA has become an incubator for grit, problem-solving, and genuine community outreach where each member plays a vital role.

And although Robotics comprises more than just building a robot primed and ready for competition, Owen’s definitely not shy about his and the team’s ability to win with consistency.

"I like to brag that we've won more than basketball has,” Owen laughed, “because I can.

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We have more state title wins than any sport in MCA history does, so I can slightly brag on that.

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And that consistency isn’t due to randomness or pure chance. No–drop by the lab late at night and you’ll see exactly why Robotics at MCA continues to stack up State titles and World Championship appearances—late-night coding and design sessions are just a part of the process.

Being fiercely competitive is in their blood, but ask Owen what the ultimate goal is for the Robotics program here at MCA, and he won’t point to the trophy case (for which there are many trophies).

"At the end of the day,” he said, “it's about how we are preparing them for life after MCA.”

The robots eventually get dismantled. The skills and character built don't.