And so it began...

 

Back in July of 2013, a couple of guys seeking refuge from the heat after a day of watching their daughters play softball in the quaint little town of Watertown, South Dakota, began having a discussion that would come to be known as "The Talk".

 

During "The Talk", initial plans were made by these unwary prospectors to form a robotics team at their daughters' middle school. And so, in the Fall of 2013, an email was sent, a meeting was scheduled, and the first members of the original iteration of Bloomington Robotics got together.

 

2016

• We hit the ground running, and are looking to become more organized both as adult mentors, as well as student participants. We are also beginning to conduct off-season training sessions in the areas of design, build and programming. We have opened these up to a larger group than just our team, in the hopes of sparking more interest for the 2016-2017 season.

 

2015

• Based off of the previous year's results, expectations were running high as we entered this season.  Although we had some normal attrition and additions, we experienced some unexpected losses as our first batch of students moved from middle school to high school. Of the 8, only 2 ended up returning, as the draw of high school activities proved to be too much. Still, we moved forward with 14 team members, 6 on 7069 and 8 on 9430. While the numbers per team was more reasonable, the lack of experience caught up to us a little.

• Qualifier Results

  • Burnsville

    • 7069 - 17th

    • 9430 - Qualified 4th, finished 2nd

 

2014

• Entered the season with a little more knowledge.  Sent an email to gather interest, got 6 or 7 responses, and then 35 people showed up at the informational meeting. Yikes! Through attrition and new members, we ended up with 24 teams members, 13 on Team 7069 and 11 on the newly formed Team 9430 - Typhoons. Again we determined that this was WAY too many kids per team, but we also realized that we didn't have enough mentors to do a split.  So we muddled through design, build and programming, and then hoped for the best when we got to the competitions. Okay, maybe it wasn't that dramatic, but there were times it sure felt that way.

• Qualifier Results

  • Burnsville

    • 7069 - xx

    • 9430 - xx

  • Elk River

    • 7069 - 15th

    • 9430 - Qualified xx, part of winning alliance

  • State Tournament - Prior Lake

    • 9430 - Qualified xx, part of winning alliance

    • Typhoons in the news

  • Super Regionals - Iowa

    • 9430 - Finished 15th

 

2013

• Started with 12 original members, and soon realized that this was WAY too many kids to be working on one robot.  "Borrowed" team number 7000 from the Kennedy-Jefferson FTC program, and split into 2 teams of 6.

• Qualifier Results

  • Edina

    • 7000 - Twisters - 24th

    • 7069 - Reboot - 17th

  • Columbia Heights

    • 7000 - Twisters - 16th

    • 7069 - Reboot - 4th