We are FRC (FIRST Robotics Competition) Team 2449, based out of Tempe, Arizona.  With members joining from James Madison Preparatory and Marcos De Niza High Schools, the team was started by Shea Ferring and Jose Orosco in 2007.

First Year: The Rookie Kicking It Into Overdrive

It started out as an idea of Shea Ferring of Orbital Science and Jose Orosco of Intel Corp., both seasoned competitors in the FIRST arena: start yet another team, this time in Arizona. So, they approached Stan Ferris, the local science teacher at James Madison Prep and Sandy Gordon, one of the physics teachers at Marcos De Niza, who both enthusiastically accepted. With a group of dedicated students, Team 2449 started on its course with Overdrive, the FRC challenge of moving large, forty inch diameter balls around a track, putting them over and under overpasses. As a rookie team, no one knew how tough the competition was going to be. Yet, at the end of the event, we still were wildly successful, coming away with the Website Excellence Award, Xerox Creativity Award, and the ROOKIE ALL STAR award, the top award a rookie team can achieve.  As such, we traveled to compete in the National competition in Atlanta, GA. With a successful season under our belt, we had nowhere to go but, well, further out of orbit!  Visit 2007-2008 season’s site here.

Year Two: Building Our Way To the Moon

The second year was much bigger. With almost twice the number of active students, three new mentors, Team 2805 (a local FIRST Tech Challenge team at James Madison Prep), and an underwater robotics competition team at ASU, we were ready to face Lunacy, the challenge of launching “moon rocks” into trailers of the opposite team. At the same time, we shared some of our space with FIRST Team 689, from Hamilton High School, due to their lack of it. This partnership won us the Gracious Professionalism Award. In the end, it was an exceptional season. Visit the 2008-2009 season’s site here.

Year Three: GOOOOAL!

Year 3, the year of Breakaway, challenged our driver’s controller-spinner coordination as we tried to play robot soccer. With many new students, we rose to the challenge, and persevered at nationals, achieving even better scores there than at the Arizona Regional event! The 2009-2010 also marked a turning point for our website as we converted from hand scripting to Word Press. We were quickly successful and were invited to share our knowledge, presenting twice to a local web developers’ Meet-Up group. It was, overall, a very exciting and vigorous year, leaving us more prepared for our future!

Year 4: Hangin’ High

Year four was by far our most successful and exciting year! We were highly successful in that years game, Logomotion, in which we had to stack rings shaped like the first logo onto a rack, ending up in the final match of the Arizona Regional! On top of that, our website won top prize at the event! IT was a spectacular year with results we hope to continue in the future!

So, What’s Next?

This year, like the others, is no different. We have a new challenge, new team members, and another chance to succeed in a little game of Rebound Rumble! See the game page to learn more about it!

Want to Learn More?

To Learn more about FIRST, this years robot, our pathway to success, or Logomotion, this year’s game, click the links above in the sub-menu. Also, if you want to help out, check out the sponsor page and wish list for simple ways to help us out!