From
http://www.bcrobotics.org/archives/1997.htm
"The Southern California 'Circuit Breakers' was started in late 1996 by Rob Steele, a JPL engineer and Hope Chapel Academy parent. All the funding was provided by JPL, and Rob worked to get other South Bay schools involved. He contacted Redondo Union, Mira Costa, Hawthorne and Leuzinger high schools, and all joined, except for Leuzinger. The team got off to a rocky start, but somehow a working robot was finished just in time. We went to nationals, and lost every single match." -Joe Ross
The website from that year is located at
http://www.frazmtn.com/~rsteele/beachbot97/homepage.htm
In 1998, Hope Chapel Academy decided to split off, and formed the Beachbots (Team 330). Hawthorne, Redondo Union, and Mira Costa stayed together and were sponsored by TRW and ADTECH and called the Vultures.
And Dale Hall has been a mentor with 294 the whole time, I believe.