Note: Your browser appears to have javascript disabled. Some features on this site use this and may not function properly when disabled.

About Us - Team History

FIRST gained a spark here in Erie not through a big blazoned competition, not through a team's presentation, but through a letter sent to our team advisor, Leigh Kostis. Seeing something worth pursuing, she took the letter to the principal, and was able to get a FIRST team started. The McDowell team was born. We started with only fourteen strong-willed, anxious seniors, but we were determined. We had only one sponsor, GPU Energy, and only one mentor, Bob Hamilton. Despite a robot that was obviously the product of a rookie team, the other FIRST teams all showed eagerness to help us and get us competition ready. It was our first taste of gracious professionalism.

1998 was the most influential year for our team, known now as Team 63. Jack Park, from GE helped convince GE to sponsor and to mentor our growing team of forty students. Less than a week after kickoff, Jack Park passed away. In memory of Jack, we named the robot after him and continued our build efforts with his widow and daughter both on the team. Many students gained insight into possibilities of careers at GE. At the end of the season, we branched off to form our sister team, Creativity in Action, Team 291.

Our first order of business in 1999 was to get our name out into the community. We built a float for our high school's Homecoming Parade. We added many new sponsors that year, including LORD Manufacturing, so our team name became the McTech Lords. In support for our program, the school district added classes in engineering and manufacturing. We began Lego League teams. At the competitions we proudly introduced the use of snowmobile treads. Our fund raising efforts proved fruitful and everyone was able to travel to the Detroit regional and EPCOT. We also spread our message during the Fourth of July Parade, and were able to assist in the formation of Team 306 in Corry, Pennsylvania.

The McTech Lords decided to become the McTech Pirates and we based our team around a pirate theme. We added many new sponsors this year. Another student team member, Mike Tibbits, died and we all took this very hard. We redoubled our efforts and were able to come in 129th out of 300 teams, the best we had ever done. At Championships, we were very proud because all three area teams were present, including Team 63 as the parent team. We continued our push for recognition in the off-season including demonstrations at Corry during a Lego League Event, extensive media coverage, and parade floats.

In 2001, we had Lego League up and running and our FRC students were mentoring. We visited elementary demonstrated our mission at many of these middle schools. We convinced our Superintendent to join us at the VCU Regional, and he returned to the school board to provide financial support from our school district for the first time. We devised a more competitive strategy during the off-season and it paid off; we also got to use pneumatics for the first time that year. Our tread designs caught on and we began helping others with their treads. In the off-season we also were featured in GE's internal magazine and we held a live teleconference for all of the GE networks with our sister team #291.

We changed our name once again and decided on the Red Barons from a left over pizza box which we ate while brainstorming a new name. We felt that Baron von Richthofen was a good role model even though we had fought him during WWI. We gained even more mentors from GE and even more local area sponsors. Our win 1st at the Philadelphia Regional put our team on the map for the first time. We raised $13,000 in 3 days over spring break to go to the champion ship where we were semifinalists in the Newton Division. We demonstrated our bot at the GE Family Day Picnic and the Technology Day at an area high school. With our new volunteer, school board member Tom Albert, who joined us at Toronto that year, we were able to double our financial assistance from our school board guaranteeing our entrance to two regionals next year.

We started the year with a new lead engineer as our mentor, and we rebuilt our old robots for practice. We won a second student Special Projects Grant and created a team video. At Pittsburgh we had our highest seed to that date - 3rd. We picked our sister team, 291, as an alliance partner and finished second! In the off-season we began to participate in Celebrate Erie, as well as school visits. Mr. Albert developed a computerized scouting system we started.

Celebrate Erie has led our team to much success, both at competitions and in the community. Our participation in 2003 led to interest from Dean Allred, a volunteer firefighter who would help our team in many ways. His involvement as a mentor gave us fresh perspectives, while his affiliation with the Wesleyville Fire Department gave us another chance to give back to the community. Our participation in the Haunted Hall fund-raiser helped us raise money for the fire department, fund-raiser for ourselves, and make more people aware of our mission and us.

Celebrate Erie has also helped First Lego League enter our community. Close to the booth for our team our influential volunteer Tom Albert opened a booth for the Lego League. More than 10 Lego League teams have been added to our district as a result. Our team members volunteer to help keep these teams running, giving us more experience in the technologies we will be using later in life. His work with the superintendent led to our team receiving district funding for the first time. Mr. Albert was named volunteer of the year by the school board in 2004 for his work with FRc and FLL.

In 2004, we gained a new mentor from our time at Celebrate Erie, Dean Allred. He brought us many new skills and much enthusiasm. Recruiting at our middle schools gave us a good base of ninth graders to transition onto our team. We Mr. Allred's efforts we were able to do more metal fabricating work with the students that had been previously shipped out. We created a new pit display complete with new computers and TVs. We standardized our logo and passed out many new items to teams. We were even able to get a professional videographer to air a video of our team on local TV stations. Mr. Albert received the volunteer of the year award from the school district.

Our robot scared willing victims at the Wesleyville Halls of Fear, a haunted house put on by a volunteer fire department for which Dean Allred works. We were proud because we were probably the first group ever to use a live untethered robot in a haunted house. We learned a new way to design our robot, but our build season was cut again with the death of ninth-grader Nick Gabel, from complications of muscular dystrophy. We worked hard to create a great Chairman's Award submission from the 15 out of 23 rookies on the team. While our robot wasn't perfect, we continued to promote the spirit of FIRST in all the we did. We were proud to be awarded the Engineering Inspiration Award at the Pittsburgh Regional.

In 2006, we went to the Pittsburgh Regional, the Toronto Regional, and the Championships in Atlanta, Georgia! At the beginning of the year, we strived to create a larger community outreach program. We setup again at Celebrate Erie again and displayed what FIRST is all about. We returned this fall to the Wesleyville Halls of Fear, occupying our own room and moving students into other rooms of the building. We attracted more students than ever to the program by setting up boothes at both schools' open houses. Our homecoming float, under the theme of "In a New York Minute" took second place with its King Kong motif. We incorporated Trojan Towels into our fundraising mix, modeling ours after the Pittsburgh favorite. Students rejoined FLL teams to help spread the FIRST message to younger students. Our booster club was created this year to help raise money and make sure meetings go smoothly.

In 2006-2007 season, once again, we were at Celebrate Erie and we all had a good time. The kids enjoyed catching the balls shooting out of the Snailbot. At the beginning of the school year we created a float for the Homecoming Parade. The theme was "Under the Sea". We built a pirate ship and incorporated our newly made air canon into it, loading it up with candy. We took second place. We started off the season in January when learning about the new competition "Rack n' Roll" in which the robot had to place inflated inner-tubes onto a moving rack and then elevate robots at the end of the match for bonus points. We chose to focus on elevating the robots and created a platform to elevate 2 robots for 60 points total. The first competition we went to was the Pittsburgh Regional competition. The coolest thing about the competition, even though having a lot of fun is cool, was that we won the Regional Chairman's Award! It is the highest award given at a regional competition, and is given to the team that best demonstrates what FIRST is all about. This award also guaranteed us a trip to the National Competition in Atlanta. We then went onto the Cleveland Regional and then the Atlanta National competition.

In the 2007-2008 season, we started off the season with our first meeting. We posted notices around the school telling everyone about the meeting and some quick facts to try and recruit new members. As usual, we participated in the Homecoming Parade. This year's theme was "A Red Carpet Affair". Though, not as good as previous year's floats, it was still a great experience and we all got acquainted with the newer members of the team who participated. Also, a new thing that we did this year, and hope to do again in following years, was participate in the Angel project. Also, in January, we had a special guest arrive in Erie. It was none other than Dean Kamen himself, the founder of FIRST Robotics. He was a featured at a Luncheon at Edinboro University that some of our members went to. We went to the Pittsburgh Regional and Great Lakes Regional.

Edit