254A

Posted Jan 8, 2013 By Jonathan Chang In Static Content

Team History

Team 254A was originally the designation given to the first VEX team ever fielded by Team 254, which competed in the FVC competition as Team 567. The team competed under the 254A designation for the first time in the 2008-2009 Elevation season. During this time, it won the World Championship CREATE award. Under the leadership of John Mueller, 254A led the charge in creating more subteams and, being the most experienced team, became Team 254's most decorated subteam. Under Mueller, the team won 8 out of its 9 tournaments in the Clean Sweep season and earned 21 World Championship qualifications, both records that to this day have not been matched by any of Team 254's other subteams.

In the 2010-2011 season, 254A, now headed by Derrick Dominic, won the VEX Robotics Competition's highest honor: the World Excellence award.

After the 2011 season, upon the graduation of the last of 254A's original members, the "flagship" team was disbanded and the team letter was reused as a "regular" team letter.

This year, Team 254A is led by James Garbagnati. Liam Hardiman is second in command. The team's design philosophy is centered around efficient descoring rather than scoring, making them distinctly different from the other 254 subteams. 254A used this strategy to their advantage to win the Bellarmine tournament.

Current Members

• Captain/Coach: James Garbagnati
• Co-Captain/Operator: Liam Hardiman
• Driver: Caleb Nelson
• Build/Scouting: Tyler Atherton, Eric Van Lare, Devon White, Shray Chakraborty, Dominic Pangrazio, Luke Gardner, Jensen Li, Colman Lin

Current Season Overview:

This year 254A had a very successful season. Its current robot ended up being a slight variation of a standard scoop-bot, with a back plate to hold extra sacks. Where it really shined was in its descoring skills, which led to the team getting picked for the number 1 seeded alliance at the Bellarmine Tournament, which it would go on to win. Despite some technical difficulties, 254A still made it to elimination rounds at the CSU Northridge tournament. Because of its win at Bellarmine, 254A will be attending both the California State Championships and the World Championships in spring.

Past Robots:

• 2008: "Fat Boy"
• 2009: "Rambo", "RoboRanger I", "The Cheesy Failure", "RoboRanger II"
• 2010: "Alpha", "Beta", "Omega"
• 2011: "Phoenix 1", "Phoenix 2", "Ostrich", "Phoenix 3", "Mongoose", "Cobra"
• 2012: "Daemon"
• 2013: "Eagle", "Alfred Hitchcock" (current)