{"id":397461,"date":"2026-01-09T03:10:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-09T03:10:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/397461\/"},"modified":"2026-01-09T03:10:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-09T03:10:08","slug":"asheboro-high-schools-drone-soccer-team-helps-students-build-skills-in-leadership-engineering","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/397461\/","title":{"rendered":"Asheboro High School\u2019s drone soccer team helps students build skills in leadership, engineering"},"content":{"rendered":"

Anthony Woodyard, chief information officer for Asheboro City Schools, was searching for a new program to bring to the high school \u2014 something hands-on, academic-driven and fun. While exploring potential options he heard about an organization that pushed him in an unexpected direction, introducing an entirely different opportunity \u2014 drone soccer. The idea would eventually make Asheboro High School a trailblazer for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics or STEM or extracurriculars in North Carolina.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was just a passing comment, but I immediately keyed in on it and wrote it down,\u201d Woodyard said. \u201cI did a little research on U.S. Drone Soccer and knew it was something we had to bring to our city schools.\u201d<\/p>\n

Drone soccer began in South Korea and has since evolved into a globally competitive sport. It blends engineering and aviation principles with the pace and strategy of traditional team sports. Players pilot 20-centimeter quadcopter drones that maneuver inside protective spheres, scoring goals much like in soccer \u2014 but in mid-air.<\/p>\n

The U.S. Drone Soccer Association<\/a> includes about 270 institutions nationwide. According to the organization, its mission <\/a>is to \u201cinspire students to pursue education and careers in aerospace and science by leading students to build, program, fly and become successful team members.\u201d<\/p>\n

Woodyard believed the program offered exactly what Asheboro students needed. Working with other administrators, he helped secure the equipment to form the first high school drone soccer team in North Carolina.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have to build their drones. They have to program their drones,\u201d Woodyard said. \u201cIt really is the full STEM continuum.\u201d<\/p>\n

The program launched in 2023 with 12 drones and only five or six students. Now in its third season, Asheboro fields three teams of students across all four high school grade levels. Competing against teams from Virginia, Delaware, Maryland and Washington, D.C. \u2014 Asheboro often ranks high on national leaderboards and currently sits at No. 26 <\/a>\u00a0as of January 2026.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The net set up for the 2025 Regionals Drone Soccer Tournament. Photo courtesy of Anthony Woodyard.<\/p>\n

Once the program began gaining momentum among students in fall 2024, the team found success quickly. For its first-ever competition, the team traveled to Virginia to participate in regionals. To the surprise of Woodyard and head coach Wendy Graham, the team took home first place.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat speaks to the power of the program, but it also speaks to the commitment of those students to really learn the sport,\u201d Woodyard said.<\/p>\n

Their success at regionals not only showed the potential of Asheboro\u2019s program, but also highlighted what the team was missing \u2014 girls on the roster.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe knew that it was coed and that you wanted to have boys and girls, but we didn\u2019t understand that during the competition there had to be girls and guys competing,\u201d Graham said. \u201cAnd we didn\u2019t have any girls.\u201d<\/p>\n

That realization prompted Graham and the team to make sure girls knew about the program and felt comfortable joining. They even hosted girls-only practices where participants could get familiar with the technology before officially joining the team.<\/p>\n

Asheboro High School senior Jenny Gabriel has been on the team for two years. When she joined the program was still new, making her one of the only girls. Gabriel said one of her goals was to help make the space more inclusive.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne thing that really sparked my decision going into it was that there weren\u2019t many girls there,\u201d Gabriel said. \u201cIt kind of shook me because I thought this was so interesting. There should definitely be girls here.\u201d<\/p>\n

During the beginning of their 2024 season, the team had two girls and 16 boys. But through outreach and encouragement, Gabriel said more young women have joined, transforming the program into both an extracurricular and an example of female representation in STEM.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe more girls we got into the program, the more comfortable I felt,\u201d she said. \u201cIt showed me that it\u2019s okay we\u2019re going to reach out and have girls involved in this STEM-based program.\u201d<\/p>\n

As she prepares for graduation, Gabriel said drone soccer has taught her lessons in both engineering and leadership.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing a leader is not only listening,\u201d Gabriel said. \u201cIt\u2019s taking part in the team and having my own ideas.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Woodyard, the success of drone soccer has been undeniable. Even as a young program, he said it has opened doors for students who never considered careers in STEM.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone around the community really just rallied around the team,\u201d Woodyard said. \u201cThat created even more momentum for us in having a successful program.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Anthony Woodyard, chief information officer for Asheboro City Schools, was searching for a new program to bring to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":397462,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,561,82],"class_list":["post-397461","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397461","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=397461"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397461\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/397462"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=397461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=397461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=397461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}