[David Brinza]

Originally Posted by Katie Reynolds

...as far as I know, FIRST has never reassigned old numbers. Can anyone confirm this?

I don't know whether there was a "Team 4" in the distant past, but High Tech High got that number this year. The past couple of years, High Tech High was Team 22, having moved from Chatsworth High. This year Chatsworth revived their team, so High Tech High had to register under a different number. Since High Tech High was clearly not a rookie team, FIRST allowed High Tech High to select an unused (or retired) team number. As sure as 2+2=4, Team 4 was selected.

As many know, there is a collaboration between Team 980 and Team 4 this year. Team 980 lost it's space to build robots and graduated or otherwise lost several key student members. Team 4 has excellent space, some very nice machine shop facilities and an army of eager students. Since Team 980 was "mentor-rich" and Team 4 needed engineering mentors, the fit seems natural. The collaboration has worked very well, as witnessed in the SoCal regional. The Team 4 students have learned a great deal about designs, problem-solving and exploring trade space guided by the Team 980 engineers. Those who might have stopped by the Team 980 and Team 4 pits last weekend, would have seen Team 4 students working furiously on their robot, with the Team 980 mentors close at hand to provide advice and tools.