Team History
2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014
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2009 (Lunacy) |
| Our team mantra for this year is "back to basics." This is reflected in our diligent work and organized team structure; we also returned to the workplace of our very first year. We continued our outreach activities always looking for new ways to educate our community. During competition Blue Steel did not perform as well as we had expected, however, we enjoyed ourselves. Although we did not participate in the finals most members of the team stayed and cheered for our fellow teams. This and other factors helped us win the Gracious Professionalism Award. One of our mentors, Dr. Dale Bibee was honored with the Woodie Flowers Award. | |
Bayou Regional:
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2010 (Breakaway) |
| This year Team Combustion truly became a year-round team, participating in a large number of demos and community activities for all age groups including recreational, professional, and non-profit organizations across the Gulf Coast. We also expanded our sponsor base considerably, having our first annual open house to showcase our accomplishments. We had an Autodesk team for the first time to make 1912 a more complete organization. We also attended two regionals, the Bayou and Lone Star Regionals. The robot Stryker, performed well at the regionals, taking first seed at the Bayou and winning the Quality Award and Engineering Excellence Award. Overall, we received seven awards at these regionals, such as the Excellence in Design Award and two Dean's List Awards at the Bayou (for full list, see Awards page). Most importantly, our team received FIRST's highest honor, the Regional Chairman's Award, allowing us to go to the FIRST Championship for the first time since 2007. | |
Bayou Regional:
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2011 (Logomotion) |
| In 2011, Team Combustion built on the enthusiasm generated our previous Chairman's win by expanding our role in the FIRST community and the Gulf Coast area. We tried to increase our involvement and cooperation with other FIRST teams and participated in even more community events and demos to spread FIRST's message to a wider audience. This year we integrated CAD design into our robot more than ever before, and worked hard on our animation and website. We were rewarded at the Bayou Regional with the Best Website Award and the Gracious Professionalism Award. Our soon-to-be president, Hannah Sorrell, won the Dean's List Finalist Award to recognize her extraordinary efforts. Ultimately, all of our hard offseason and build season work climaxed with the winning of our second consecutive Regional Chairman's Award at the Bayou Regional, allowing us to again attend the International FIRST Championship in the new venue of St. Louis, Missouri. | |
Bayou Regional:
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2012 (Rebound Rumble) |
| As an active member of the community all year around, Combustion blazes through its summers reaching out through demos and volunteer work, and forming new ties with organizations and people. During this year's build season, our team implemented CAD to construct a more perfect robot, while our animators breathed life into their vision behind the computers. Our Rebound Rumble robot, Thermite, ranked 8th at the Bayou Regional. Among other honors, Team Combustion received the Regional Chairman's Award for the third year in a row, sending us straight to the World Championships in St. Louis, MO. Furthermore, our very own Rachel Holladay won the prestigious National Dean's List Award granted to only 10 recipients every year, marking Team Combustion's first foray into awards on the international level. | |
Bayou Regional:
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2013 (Ultimate Ascent) |
| Entering our eighth year of FIRST, we continued to diversify our off-season events. We demoed to a wide variety of groups and organizations, from the national AARP convention to our very own Rocket Camp. PEDRO (Panther Engineered and Designed RObot) Prime, the finished product of many off-season builds, furnished our fleet with a triple-barreled t-shirt cannon. As the hectic build season for Ultimate Ascent progressed, we focused on strategy and simplicity, culminating with Hammerhead, our robust cycler robot. Hammerhead performed well at two regionals, finishing as a semifinalist at the Bayou Regional and winning the Quality Award at the inaugural Razorback Regional in Fayetteville, Arkansas. A rare "treble" of awards at Bayou highlighted our team's strength: Woodie Flowers finalist for founding mentor Wendy Holladay, Dean's List Finalist for junior Scott Kent, and the prestigious Regional Chairman's Award. This earned us a place at the World Championships, held in St. Louis, for the fourth consecutive year. | |
Bayou Regional:
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2014 (Aerial Assist) |
| In our ninth year, we moved into a new build space on school campus. We continued traditional outreach venues while also reaching out to new opportunities, especially within our school. Directly after Kickoff, we adopted FRC 4668, from nearby Salmen High. During the build season, we concentrated on modular, compact design. Our finished product, Apache, is one of our lightest and fastest robots, as well as one of our simplest. We competed at the Orlando Regional for the first time, visiting fellow NASA House Team 233 (The Pink Team). Although this was the first regional at which we did not win an award, Orlando was an exciting start to the Aerial Assist competition. We used this experience to improve Apache for the Bayou Regional, where we finished as quarterfinalists with FRC 2190 and FRC 2080. Mr Allen Sorrell earned the Volunteer of the Year Award for his peerless support for BLaST. Alex Lew became our 2nd Dean's List Winner at the World Championships in St Louis. Even though we did not qualify as a team for the World Championship, we are proud of our superb robot and complete design cycle. | |
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