Pioneers Over The Years:

Our Story

In 2018, we were a 7-member rookie team with years of FLL experience and a belief that the best way to start a FTC program in our district was to “just do it!” We had only a starter kit and a willingness to work hard, but we taught ourselves, working long hours in a garage without air conditioning or heat. Our mistakes and failures were as motivating as our successes. 

Surprisingly, even though we were only in our first year, we won awards and qualified for the state tournament. There, we saw the resources and expertise of established programs and the ingenuity it takes to be the best.  

In the past five years, we expanded our team and started an official club at our school. We continued to teach ourselves and new members valuable STEM, teamwork, and leadership skills. We continued to experience challenges and failures, but we have also learned from our mistakes and ended the last four seasons with awards at the state tournament. 

Despite the challenges presented by Covid-19, we were able to keep working by taking advantage of the remote meeting environment to rethink our meeting and design processes.  We focused on building the CAD skills for collaborative virtual design and testing.  This made building more efficient and we were able to fabricate and 3D print custom parts. 

In the 2021-2022 season we earned awards at every regional tournament and reached the finals at the state tournament.  Our alliance partners in that event became our opponents in the 2022-2023 finals and we went on to win the state championship with the best autonomous programming, most consistent robot performance and highest alliance score in the state for the year!  

Outside of  FIRST gameplay, we use our resources and knowledge to help encourage robotics and STEM learning in our community. We programmed a tactile auditory app that allows special needs students to use the elementary school LEGO robots with their classmates.  We also mentor elementary and middle school FLL teams.  We are committed to service because we know the importance of giving back to our community and making our love of STEM accessible to all. 

Time and time again, we have overcome obstacles and used adverse situations as opportunities to change and grow. Each year, our team's graduating seniors have gone on to honors programs in engineering and computer science after inspiring and our new and continuing members to carry on their passion for excellence.  Pioneers are leaders and innovators and we invite all those who want to blaze new trails to join us.