Broncobotics

Great job team members and parents!

FRC 1189 - The Gearheads and The Broncobotics FRC both featured in the GPPSS Newsletter this week!

https://app.smore.com/n/jhg4m-gppss-update

Congratulations to #5 Team Diamonds from Farmington, Michigan for claiming the Core Values Award on the global stage at FIRST Championships.

https://community.firstinspires.org/teams-from-around-the-world-made-history-at-firstchamp

Check out this podcast by The Clueless ftc # 11212 in San Diego, California!

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/stem-everyday/id1111792057?i=1000748673907

https://www.thecluelessftc.org/

STEM Everyday #312 | FTC Robotics | feat. The Clueless 11212 Podcast Episode · STEM Everyday · February 7 · 18m

The team brought home a 2nd place trophy from the FTC Decode Spring Competition at U of D Mercy!

Our players are quickly identifying their individual strengths as they relate to a robotics team and are stepping into their subsequent roles quite naturally. In fact they won the “Connect Award” for this very strength. Some are great at driving, shooting, loading. Some are great at creativity, art, aesthetics. Some are great at the nuts and bolts of building. Some are great at coding and programming. Some are great at leading and networking. Some are great at planning and goal setting… The great takeaway is they came together and made the necessary decisions and compromises under pressure for the greater good of the team to bring this victory home to Brownell Middle school in Grosse Pointe Farms as well as to our great school district.
But we simply cannot attribute our success to this team alone without acknowledging G-B.O.A.T FTC # 17415 for choosing us as an alliance and securing our position in the play-offs. Also we give credit to our mentor group Botmasterz FRC 9255 for always being present at our events and to their Lead Coach Sherry Benedict Betcher for her consultation in starting this great endeavor. THANK YOU. THANK YOU! 🙏

Let us not overlook the great commitment and participation of our team parents who have showed up to help at weekly meetings, shared photos, brought snacks, managed content, created spirit wear, and cheered louder than any other team around for our junior engineers. Planning is in the works for more skilled opportunities/ roles for our educated and motivated parents to take on in the coming year. Stay tuned!

And last but NOT LEAST we give our collective thanks and appreciation to Lead Coach Steven Silva for having the guts to start this team mid year not knowing what he was getting himself into! He has worked tirelessly around his work and home schedules to hold meetings twice a week with middle school aged kids (which is very outside of his wheelhouse!) He is the calmest and most collected adult I have ever met and that energy provides an unparalleled grounding that supports a positive learning environment for these kids to grow. Coach Steve is a mechanical engineer by trade, an alumni of Michigan Technological University, and a loving husband and father. He plans to lead our team to state championships!

Below are photos from yesterday’s FTC Decode Spring Competition at U of D Mercy.

The team was preparing their poster-board for the FTC Spring Decode Competition at University of Detroit Mercy*

Having a great time at our second competition at Spring Detroit. Here we are with Botmasterz FRC 9255 who have mentored us on this journey. Thank you!

This has been a great start for our Brownell Broncobotics kids. The team participated in their first competition today and placed 9th out of 23 teams! It was exciting, we learned a ton, and it was very tech forward.

Shout out to FTC 14649 for hosting the 2026 off-season GLOW competition! Also to Botmasterz FRC 9255 for supporting us on this new journey.

Coach Steve has been a great leader, allowing the kids to have creative control and steering them in the right direction. They hand sketched their own design ideas for the logo, decorated their “chicken bot,” and self assigned roles for the day. They work great as a team and it is fun to see them discover their individual strengths as budding tech kids!

We are collectively very lucky to have a lot of parents that help out, give their time, and participate as adjacent and fully supporting adult members of the team*

Thanks everyone for a great day!

GO BRONCOBOTICS!

We are definitely ready for next week. Bring it on!

Photo icloud in comments for you to see the entire days picture lineup!

Having a blast at our first ever robotics competition! Go Broncobotics!

Decorating the robot for glow!

A big thanks to the Pierce Middle School robotics team for lending us their portable gaming ring so we could practice using our robot this week!