A visit with Team 23 (video)

FIRST General Forum
1

I was a student back when team numbers were invented in FRC. I went back to visit Mr. Bastoni at Plymouth North High School right after the 2013 season. They built a new high school to replace the 1950’s era school where I originally did robotics, so I shot some video of the new space. I finally edited it together last month and thought I’d share it for all. This shop was used for the 2012 and 2013 seasons, the only two seasons since 1999 that FRC23 has competed. This is what can happen if you have a sponsor and a community that really support having an engineering program at the school. FRC was only a small part of what Mr. Bastoni does with his students, day in and day out. The shop was nothing like this nice back when I was a student, and I’ve never had a shop this nice for any team I’ve mentored since then.

As you go through this very exciting build season, take a moment to thank your mentors, your school administrator that gives you space, your sponsors, and your parents. When you get to your event, go and thank the event committee and the judges. What everyone is doing collectively for you and your team mates is launching you ahead of the majority of students out there. Take time to appreciate the blood, sweat, and tears (including yours!) that make it all possible.

video link

2

Absolutely incredible. The power of a dream is pretry fantastic.

I always like to see other people’s shop space. Nice job guys!

3

I am jealous! That would make the world of differences for us!

4

Out of curiosity what happened to the team?
It seems like with all of these resources it would be fairly easy to keep the program going.

5

They were revived in 2012 but stopped again in 2014.

As far as I remember it had nothing to do with resources, but more about other projects and opportunities that took priority over FRC. (correct me if I’m wrong)

They had really interesting robots in 2012 and 2013.

Fun fact - team 23 is one of the few to boast a Woodie Flowers Award winner (Mike Bastoni) and also be a part of the Hall of Fame.

6

There were various reasons. Some political (school politics, budget process changes, etc.) and some other projects (they competed in high school battlebots, electrathon racing, and possibly others).

23 iirc got chairman’s and Mr bastoni got wooden flowers at the same time.

The 2012 robot is by far my favorite, with the 1999 bot being second. The 2012 bot can be seen in my video.