Team
History of the Team:
The Metal Mustangs Robotics, First Robotics Competition (FRC) Team 2410, was founded four years ago by Josh Fried, at Blue Valley North High School. After approaching the woodshop teacher, Daniel P. Ritter III, a previous coach of other robotics teams, Josh and Mr. Ritter urged the administration to approve the creation of a FRC team. Once it was approved, the team advertised throughout the school and recruited students from different grade levels. The team consisted of 14 boys, who then attempted to create a robot.
The season started with preliminary training, and during the fall of 2007, the team began to acquire knowledge about working in the woodshop and work together as a team. During the build season, the students began to learn how to work with the robot parts and with the help of their first team mentor, Mr. Navickas, the students began to learn how to program and work with electrical systems. There were arguments on the design of the robot and how it would be built, but slowly the robot came into shape. A showcase for parents and teachers alike was organized and the robot was presented before the competition.
The team headed to St. Louis for their first regional. At the regional the team experienced multiple problems with the robot and had difficulty getting the robot to work, but slowly the team overcame adversity and began to do better at the competition. For their efforts, the team was awarded the Rookie All-Star Award, qualifying them for the national championship in Atlanta. However before Atlanta the team headed to their second regional, the Kansas City Regional where they advanced to the elimination matches. At Atlanta, the team competed and did well, but did not make it to the elimination matches.
In 2008, Spencer Hobson-Gutierrez assumed the position of team captain. The new season heralded a diversification of the team, as girls joined the team for the first time. The success of the team had spread throughout the school helping the team expand their numbers as well. The year included a whole new FRC control system, and the team once again had to relearn how to incorporate the new software and electrical system into the robot. The team’s identity began to form, as the newly formed image team began to focus full time on building the team’s image and colors; new talent in art allowed the team to create an official logo and further establish itself in FIRST.
The team’s robot included a more complex design with more functions and better control than the first robot had. They also worked better together and communicated in a fashion that allowed the team to do better than they had done the previous year. The robot consisted of a spiral, ball intake system, and a shooter. The team headed to the Kansas City Regionals, where they finished strong in the quarterfinals of the competition after a crisis occurred with the programming. The program was updated, but the update had rendered the code useless. The programmers worked all day reprogramming every component of the robot, and finally managed to finish everything by the end of the day. Following Kansas City, the team went to Denver to compete. Like Kansas City, the team finished strong but did not qualify for the national championship.
Despite not qualifying for the national championships, the team did far better than it had done the year before. The team did a better job at communicating and working together, and built relationships that would last a lifetime.
In 2009, the team diversified and expanded even more, consisting of 30 students, 4 mentors, and 1 team coach. The team was more organized and developed its identity even more than it had in the past two years. Under the leadership of team captain, Ashwyn Sharma, the team effectively improved the design of the robot and cooperation between the members. The team made finals in the Kansas City Regional and won in Oklahoma Regional. The Metal Mustangs went on to nationals where they were able to network and share ideas.
In 2010 the team expanded to a full Blue Valley District team. We merged with another robotics team in our district, team 2334 Hazmats of Blue Valley High School. Our newly merged team allows anyone in high school within the district to join our team. We now have a greater impact on the community. This year we hope to develop and spread the ideals of FIRST further than before.