Last Wednesday 24 Bellarmine students traveled to St. Louis to defend their World Championship FRC title from last year.  Team 254 left St. Louis one step away from the Einstein playoffs, which showcases the top 12 teams in the world from the 400 teams which competed in this tournament. We lost in the finals of the Curie Division (one match away from Einstein) with our partners Miss Daisy from Ambler, Pennsylvania and AIR Strike from Newport County, Rhode Island.  Eric Bakan was also a finalist for the prestigious Dean’s List Award in St. Louis.

The team powered through the qualification rounds and ended up proving ourselves as one of the most capable ball shooting robots in the division even though we seeded very low.  We were the first pick by the #1 seeded team and showed the world what our powerful alliance could do, triple balancing in numerous matches (see picture below) and going forward to set the all-time Rebound Rumble high score of 128.

Many students, mentors, and staff contributed but special thanks goes to our Driver Abhi Kumar (2014) and Operator Chris Sides (2015) and Human Player  Adam Wilson (2012).  Furthermore, congratulations to all of our seniors for whom this was their last tournament: Bhargava Manja, Eric Caldwell, Eric Bakan, Reiley Weekes, Michael Searing, Ankur Das, Arun Pingali, Andrew Guastaferro & Adam Wilson.  Although we didn’t win, we showed the world what we can do and are proud to have finished off our fourteenth season strong.

Triple balancing to set the rebound rumble high score!

Over the past thirteen years, Team 254, “The Cheesy Poofs,” has grown from one of the smallest programs in the country, at a struggling high school, to a large, multifaceted organization. In 1998, NASA engineers Bob Holmes and Steve Kyramarios joined Jason Morella, then an English teacher and now with the Robotics Education and Competition Foundation, in exciting students about robotics. With the downsizing of Broadway High School, the program was given a new home at Bellarmine College Preparatory in the fall of 2000. Since then, the team has won the coveted FIRST Chairman’s Award, the FIRST Championship, the VEX Championship Excellence Award and numerous tournaments.

Much more important than any competitive successes or awards, the students of Team 254 have grown academically, intellectually, and socially. Team 254 members gain a better understanding, a greater respect, and a more profound appreciation of the benefits of a good education. Much like NASA and Bellarmine College Preparatory, FIRST and VEX are organizations which, in a profound way, inspire and motivate our students to avidly pursue their academic, career, and personal goals.

FIRST, which stands for “For the Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology,” is a nonprofit organization founded by Dean Kamen in 1989. Structured around a high-school robotics competition, the FIRST Robotics Competition is much more than just a competition, combining gracious professionalism with technology to create an environment that fosters a deeper appreciation for science and technology. Professional mentors as well as college students partner with teams to teach students valuable engineering and professional skills while helping the team succeed. Furthermore, FIRST teams are encouraged to spread the world to increase appreciation of Science, Technology, Engineering & Math in society as a whole. In addition to the FIRST Robotics Competition, FIRST sponsors the FIRST Tech Challenge, designed for high school teams that may not have the resources to participate in the FIRST Robotics Competition. For younger students, FIRST has developed the FIRST Lego League.

Team 254 has competed in the FIRST robotics competition since 1999. In 2004, the team won the Chairman’s award, the highest award in the FIRST program, which recognizes a single team each year as the team which best demonstrated the ideals of the FIRST program. Since winning the Chairman’s award, Team 254 has been a member of the FIRST hall of fame and continues to work to spread the message of FIRST.

[FIRST Website]