Inspirational teams

[Beaker]

There were 3 teams that got me hooked on FRC: 148, 16 and 1717.

When I was in middle school, I heard about the Dallas Regional because my dad worked at the JCPenney headquarters in Plano;My first FRC experience was watching 148 win Logomotion. After that excitement, I came back in 2012 to watch 16 and 148 partner up to win Dallas in Rebound Rumble. I was so inspiried that I checked out The New Cool from my local library and read the story of 1717's rise to the top in 2009 (may they rest in peace).

These three teams made me really want to be on an FRC team, but there were no FRC teams at the high school where I would attend in the Fall of 2012. Then my dad and 600 other people were laid off from the JCPenney HQ and we moved to Houston, and I was granted the opportunity to be on Team 624.

As a member of an FRC team, and now Alumni, additional teams that inspired me were 254, 971 and 987. These 3 teams produce more than amazing robots each year. 254 and 971 were the reason I got into motion profiling because of their conference at world's in 2015. I also admire the culture of 987, a team that I always wanted our team to be when it came to the "More than Robots" part of FRC.

As an aside, winning the Dallas Regional in 2015 was very surreal for me after watching Dallas in 2011 and 2012. That was one of the highlights of my career as a student, and was very full-circle.