Our Team
Mentors:
Paul Applegate, Steven Brauen, Rick Coleman, Fred Dempsey, Sean Hill, Scott Scheffler, Norm Weber, and Pat Wright
Teachers:
Tom Fare, Susan Lanighan, Brian Rothwell
Students:
Ron Bailey, Nick Condren, Tony Costanzo, Tyler Gerhardt, Rollin Hellner, Sydney Hoefer, Claire Kilcullen, Amy Lanighan, Ginny Larimore, Liz Larimore, John Lynch, Susan Nizialek, Chaz Parker, Paul Roberts, Gabe Schuler, Brandon Seib, Andy Sellers, and Jake Summers.
Team History
The Delphi Circuit Stompers was formed late in 1999 as a challenge from Delphi Divisional Engineering Directors.
Den Black, a chief engineer at Delphi Harrison Thermal Systems at the time, was assigned the task of forming the team.
Den and a Delphi Thermal recruitment team communicated with many local schools to see if they were interested in supporting a FIRST Robotics program. Newfane High School was ultimately selected.
In 2000 eighteen students from Newfane High School were assisted by Den Black, Paul Bruski, Jim Christen, Don Enzinna, Thom Glaser, Tom Grupp, Mark Parisi, Thomas Urbank, Norm Weber, Lindsey Williams, Joel Yacono, mentors from Delphi , and teachers Tom Fare, Shelia Flanagan, Henri Kursten, Bill Neidlinger as they began their rookie season. In their first year the Circuit Stompers learned much and were recognized as an outstanding rookie team.
In 2002 our corporate sponsor wanted to expand the robotics program to other schools. To do this our team invited students and teachers from Lockport High School to join us. For the next two years both schools met at the Newfane site and were quite successful winning the Leadership in Controls Award, the Toronto Regional, and the Newton Division at the 2003 Championship.
In 2004 Lockport started its own robotics team known as the Warlocks. What started as a small group of 18 students had now become two successful teams.
This year our team has 18 student members, 3 teachers, and 9 mentors. We meet daily during the build and competition season from January until March. In addition to our competitions, our team is active inspiring science, technology, and engineering throughout our community. Our community activities can be seen on our Events page.
To find out more about our team or to sponsor our team, contact our advisor, Mrs. Lanighan at slanighan@newfane.wnyric.org.
Program Goals
- Inspire students concerning technology, math & science.
- Prepare students for leadership roles.
- Promote the ideals of FIRST.
- Increase community and state awareness of science and technology education opportunities.
- Promote teamwork skills.
- Introduce students to positive role models.
- Boost the level of competition in FIRST by providing technical assistance and organizational mentoring to any FIRST team.