Thumbs Up Duck!

TDT with Coaches and Mentor

Five years, five State Championships!  Team Duct Tape does it again, this time with a brand new crew of 13-16 year old rookies new to the FIRST experience, on our veteran team bringing home the trophies. Thanks in enormous measure to dedicated coaches, mentors and families, all committed heart and soul to our character driven team philosophy that elevates Gracious Professionalism, teamwork,and academic and intellectual achievement above all else, Team Duct Tape succeeded in all counts.

After a day of vigorous game play that included some pretty high scoring matches, we finished with a Finalist Alliance award after a  hard-fought three match finals with our great alliance partners Dent in the Universe and Masquerade, from Middleton High School,  and the Judges Award for “Highest Ranking Improvement” recognizing our journey from nearly last place at the start of the season, to the State Championship.  When all was said and done, we finished in 9th place, had a great time, learned an enormous amount and are full of ideas for improving team performance next season.

TDT Cheering Section

Ringing it Up! big time

We also made the most of our visit to Daytona Beach, touring the fantastic Embry Riddle Aeronautical University, having fun at the awesome Sun Viking Lodge we stayed at on the beach (too cold and windy for us Floridians to hit the ocean, but some team members made the most of the heated pool, and they had an arcade!), and some of us toured the Daytona Speedway.  We had fun meeting new teams and making new friends, and can’t wait to do it all again next season!

Our heartiest congratulations to the FTC World Championship bound teams –  top championship Inspire Award Winners, FTC Team 5070, NUTS, of Orlando Science Schools, and Winning Alliance Captain  Maelstrom from Middleton High School, whose alliance with Brick Buddies and team 3839  NeXT helped them earn the top robot performance award.

Doing the wave between matches

Judges Award Winners

While the game playing season is over for us, we’re not done playing with robots! We’ll continue with our hallmark outreach efforts, hitting the road on Saturday for Florida FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) Orlando Regional , to demo FIRST Tech Challenge and watch the big robots play, then to the coolTech Expo on March 14, and the Tampa Bay Mini Maker Faire on March 23rd.   We’ll also be meeting semi-regularly throughout the spring and summer, to play (paint ball anyone?),  get in some FTC related training and workshops,  maybe teach a few ourselves, and generally just keep enjoying each others’ company!

Thanks again to all who helped us get here from there. Rip it! Stick it! Done!