SANDPOINT — Sandpoint High School is no stranger to state titles, but an up-and-coming club team is aiming to take the school’s success international.  

While the Sandpoint High School boy's rocketry club is in its infancy, the students running the program are reaching for the stars. Last year, both the boys and girls teams from Sandpoint High School qualified for the 2025 American Rocketry Challenge, a national competition between the 100 top ranked schools in the United States.  

The teams were the first from North Idaho to ever qualify and were the only two teams representing the state in the competition. 

Thompson credits the team’s success last year to the “Egg-o-vator," a unique compartment built by team member Kieran Ryan to hold two eggs during flight, even though he didn’t initially believe in it.  

“I thought it was going to make it too top heavy ... but he managed to design it really well,” Carter Thompson, a SHS junior, said. “It ended up working so well, it got us to nationals.” 

After finishing in 39th place at nationals, Thompson said he feels the team is ready to take its next step and gain more independence. That’s why Thompson has already begun fundraising efforts over the summer, in hopes of raising $6,000. 

“There were a lot of parents intervening last year ... I’m not trying to blame any parents, but there’s some stuff you can’t do,” Thompson said. “I wanted it to be something I could independently run.” 

Thompson said that that amount will be enough to take the entire team to nationals in Virginia, if they qualify, as well as build 18 rockets during the school year. The rockets are entirely designed, assembled and tested by the team and get better with each integration.  

The team uses an application called OpenRocket to run simulations on their rocket designs before taking the projects to the construction phase. Kaiden Buck, a sophomore at Sandpoint High School, said Thompson roped him into rocketry and this phase is what convinced him to join the club. 

“I love the building,” Buck said. “Putting the pieces together, I just find it very fun and fascinating.” 

Rocketry competitions work on a scoring system similar to golf, with the lowest score winning. The American Rocketry Challenge sets the requirements for what it is looking for, any changes from those add points to your total. 

Among the qualifications for the rockets, it must carry a passenger or two. This year, the ARC is requiring rockets to be able to carry one large egg to 750 feet in the air and safely return to Earth within 36 to 39 seconds.  

“If you get exactly 750 feet, that's zero points, so if you go 1 or 2 feet over that’s one or two points,” Thompson explained. “Every foot over is a point and every second over your window of flight time is a point.” 

Spacepoint, a local nonprofit focused on driving youth participation into the space industry, has sponsored and supported the boy’s and girl’s rocketry clubs at Sandpoint High School since their inception. 

An event hosted by Spacepoint at The Library in Sandpoint sparked Thompson’s initial interest in rocketry. Now with two of his former teammates graduating this spring, it’s his turn to lead. 

Thompson said the team has already begun work on designing the 2026 rocket under the Pend Orielle Rocketry banner and hopes to begin testing it early in the fall. 

“It’s a team I know how to work with,” Thompson said. “This will be our best year yet.” 

For more information or to donate to the boy’s club’s mission, head to bit.ly/3J9KIYD.