Founded in 2009, the Friarbots have steadily improved to become a world-class team that regularly attends and excels at the FIRST World Championship. (The acronym FIRST stands for “For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology.”). In 2017, the Friarbots ranked 2nd in their division at the World Championship and joined the first alliance, improving on the team’s best performance in earlier years. The growing legacy of the team is visible in the alumni who continue to support the program – now interns and engineers at Boeing, Tesla, SpaceX, Google, Facebook, Twitter and others.
Daniel Guevara ’10 founded FIRST Team 3309 and led the team to secure rookie funding from NASA. Mike Mason of Hamrock, Inc., became the team’s first engineering mentor and Hamrock became the team’s first major sponsor.
The next year, Eddie Gomez ’11 led the team from a small storage pod next to the old Physics Room as roboparents and students built character by rolling out carpet and equipment on the Priory parking lot for the robot each afternoon and packed it back up at midnight during build season.
In 2012, David Carr ’12 grew the team, including students from Rosary and Connelly for the first time, and spread the message on Servite TV. Fr. Perry McCoy, OSM began the competition season with a robot/team blessing ceremony, and it culminated with the team’s first awards.
James Carr ’13 moved the team into the garage of the future Robohouse and formed new partnerships with long-lasting metal fabrication and parts sponsors.
During the 2014 and 2015 seasons, Michael Stump ’15 led the team as it moved into the Robohouse on Keystone, started fall VEX robotics programs to involve more students, and captained the first place alliance at the 2015 Arizona West Regional. Lead mentor and parent Evan Smith won the 2015 LA Regional mentor of the year award. The team’s physical presence, outreach, and R&D capabilities continued to grow thanks to the support and energy of the Stump family.
In 2016, Kenny Sandon ’16 and Megan Guttieri ’16 led the team to win the flagship Chairman’s Award at LA Regional and captain the first place alliance at the Orange County Regional. The Stump family continued its amazing support of the team with the opening of the Robodome, a wonderful facility for teaching, manufacturing, and practice at the heart of Servite’s campus. The Friarbots also jointly hosted an off-season competition, Beach Blitz, for over 30 teams and hundreds of attendees.
In 2017, Matthew Krager ’17 and lead mentor Evan Smith pushed the team to world-class levels of performance at both California regional events and at the World Championship in Houston. The team won the Chairman’s Award in Arizona, marking the second time the team achieved this highest-prestige award.
Since 2009, the Friarbots have grown a sustainable program that developed more than 280 young men and women into capable college students, engineers and business professionals and looks forward to many future successes.
For more information regarding Friarbots, visit www.Team3309.org.
