Tharptown High School rocketry team continues Franklin County’s success
By Allison Law
The state of Alabama is used to winning championships.
So is Franklin County, population 30,000, a rural county nestled in northwest Alabama on the edge of the Bankhead National Forest.
But Franklin’s champs aren’t on the field. They’re aiming a little higher.
820 feet, to be exact.
These champs are on rocketry teams.
Russellville High School took the world’s attention in 2015 when the school’s engineering team – made up of seven high schoolers and middle schoolers – won the national Team America Rocketry Challenge (TARC). A couple months later, the same team won first place at the International Rocketry Challenge at the 2015 Paris Air Show, defeating two teams from the U.K. and France.
The school – which now has multiple rocketry teams – continues to place in the top 25 at the American Rocketry Challenge (formerly TARC) national finals.
Now, Tharptown High School – just seven miles east of Russellville High – is joining its fellow Franklin County school in the rocketry ranks. THS’ rocketry team won the national finals in May 2024, earning a trip to London in July to compete in the International Rocketry Challenge at the Farnborough International Airshow.
The team representing the U.K. narrowly surpassed the Tharptown team in the closest-ever scoring for this international competition.
The team was understandably disappointed to come in second place, but not for long.
“I was upset,” says Kylee Beard, team captain and motor builder. “But we got over it. We have one more year.”
The team lost only one member, Jessie Mitchell, to graduation in 2024, meaning the remaining seven members have all had experience at the international level. Some have been on the team for multiple years.
Tharptown has sent a team to the national finals six times since the program started in 2018. THS has now placed in the top 10 four times, including a second-place finish in 2023.
They’re determined, says Areanna Orozco, a math teacher at THS and team sponsor. “They are hoping that we can get back and they can kind of repeat (their earlier success). They went from second to first in nationals (in 2023), and they are hoping to go to internationals and go from second to first this year.”
Design, build, launch
The American Rocketry Challenge (ARC) is an annual model rocket competition for students in grades 6-12, designed to spark interest in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education. Teams generally meet early in the school year to start planning and designing their rockets and must make official qualifying flights by early April.
The top 100 qualifying teams compete at the national finals in Virginia in May, vying for a share of $100,000 in prizes and the title of national champion. This year, Tharptown’s team won $20,000 for their first-place finish. The national winner is the only American team to compete in the international challenge.
ARC challenges students to design, build and launch rockets that can safely carry one, two, or three raw hen eggs (depending on the year’s challenge) and consistently come very close to a specified flight altitude and duration. This year, the teams’ rockets had to carry one large egg to an altitude of 820 feet, remain airborne for between 43 and 46 seconds, and return to the ground safely. Each rocket carries an altimeter.
Besides the obvious knowledge teams need to be successful – engineering and aerodynamics among them – problem solving and teamwork are crucial. “We decide as a team how to work it out,” Kylee says.
About her teammates, “They’re like a second family,” says Angie Chavez, who works with the parachutes that allow the rockets to safely return to earth.
Andrew Heath, the team’s mentor, agrees. “Teams that make it this far, they’re like their own little family. But there’s no drama, (even) for this age group.”
Heath knows all about the rocketry challenges. He was a senior and the captain of the Russellville City Schools Engineering Team that won TARC and then placed first in the International Rocketry Challenge in 2015. After graduation, he earned a bachelor’s degree in engineering and started mentoring school rocketry teams. He’s also judged at the international competition several times.
“Being the mentor has been my favorite part,” Heath says. “I trust their decisions; they’ll go with one, and just try it.”
Heath was especially proud of the Tharptown team’s maturity and sportsmanship at the international competition in London. “They were disappointed, but they went out of their way to talk to the other teams,” he says. He accompanied the team on the trip.
“One of the things they did, and I talked to them about this, was being an ambassador for Tharptown High School, for their state and their country,” Heath says.
‘Just try it out’
Most of the team members got involved with the rocketry team either because a family member encouraged them, or their friends did. Isabella Hall, who manages the flight sheets, got support for her participation from her dad, who worked on rockets. Hall is the only junior on the team, and like several others on the team, she wants to study engineering after graduation.
Angel Garcia, who works with launch setup and retrieval, has family members who did rocketry (his older brother was on the team) and would like to study mechanical or aerospace engineering. Like most of the team, his favorite part of the process is the launch – seeing months of hard work come to fruition. But they don’t take things too seriously. “When it fails, (we can) laugh about it,” he says.
Shyla Martinez, the payload specialist, joined the team as a sophomore, and says it’s one of the best decisions she made for herself. She feels good about this year’s competition; “we certainly know what we’re doing. I feel very good.”
Experience with rockets, or even a background in science and/or engineering, is not required for the rocketry team, and Shyla encourages others to go out for it. “It’s fun – you can get into this without any knowledge (or previous experience).”
Adrionna Ashley, a senior and a team helper, agrees. “Just try it out – there’s lots of opportunities,” she says.
