Mission, Texas - The Mighty Patriot Engineering Team 8019 from Veterans Memorial High School is representing Mission Consolidated Independent School District (CISD) at the 2023 FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) World Championship in Houston, Texas. The Patriots are the only team from the Rio Grande Valley to advance to the prestigious World Championship. The team will join thousands of students from around the world to compete for the championship title.
The team’s journey began back in January when the FRC season officially kicked off. Over the course of the season, the team competed in two district events, one in San Antonio and one in Houston. FRC 8019 performed exceptionally well at their two events earning significant points through their robot performance and receiving numerous awards.
“Our team has worked hard and battled all season to gain every district point that we could to qualify for Worlds,” said Robotics Coach for Veterans Memorial High School, Mr. Jose Sanchez. “As a result of our efforts, we ranked 20th in the state out of 174 teams at the FIT (First in Texas) state competition”.
At the FIT state competition in Houston, Texas the Patriot Engineering Team went 8-4 in matches and was selected by FRC-9128 ITKAN Robotics into the 6th-seeded alliance. Alongside FRC-324 Chips, and FRC-4219-RED the Patriots performed well exhibiting offense and defense in matches and ultimately making it to the finals in the Apollo division. The team’s 20th ranking granted them their qualification for the World’s competition in Houston, Texas.
“I’m very excited because this is everything we have worked for this entire season. All the hard work, late nights, and long practice hours are all coming together,” said Team Captain, Ismael Alvarado. “I’m just looking forward to competing one more time with the team at the World Championship”.
In addition, the team received the Judges Award and the Safety All-Star Award. The Safety All-Star Award was presented to the team's Safety Captain, Noema Trevino.
“I’m more excited than ever. Going to Worlds was a really big goal we wanted to achieve and now that we are finally here, we are here to push beyond and make teams across the world know who we are,” said Team member, Jordan Hernandez. “I would just really like to thank our coaches. We set a goal two years ago to make it to Worlds and now that we’ve finally made it, it wouldn’t have been possible without our coaches”.
The Patriot Engineering coaches/mentors are: Lead Coach; Jose Sanchez, Coach; Veronica
Burgoa, Mentors; Shaila Silva, Alan Mendez, and Julio De Leon.
Team 8019 members are:
Seniors: Captain; Ismael Alvarado, Hugo Mireles, Jordan Hernandez, Jaditza Gutierrez, Arely Espinoza, Daniela Gonzalez, Brandon Molina, Micah Sanchez, Ronan Luna, Robert Velez, Adela Soria, Javier Rivera, and Amanda Lozoya.
Juniors: Nikolas Salinas, Cristian Quintero, Ramiro Sepulveda, Juliana Ortiz, Christine Zayas, Troy Champion, Lukas Martinez, Logan Martinez, Linda De Leon, Valerie Ruiz, and Noema Trevino.
Sophomore: Julissa Ortiz
“As their coach I’m just really proud of the work they put in. We understood there were going to be challenges and that the competition was going to be tough but we never stopped believing and rallying together to help each other out,” said Mr. Sanchez. “I saw the best in a lot of the students arise throughout the competition. I think that’s what I'm the most proud of, I really got to see them at their best”.
The 2023 FIRST World Championship will be held in Houston as a four-day event from April 19-22, 2023 at the George R. Brown Convention Center.
FIRST® is a robotics community that prepares young people for the future through a suite of inclusive, team-based robotics programs for ages 4-18 (PreK-12) that can be facilitated in school or in structured afterschool programs. Boosted by a global support system of volunteers, educators, and sponsors that include over 200 of the Fortune 500 companies, teams operate under a signature set of FIRST Core Values to conduct research, fundraise, design, build, and showcase their achievements during annual challenges.
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