History
Part I: Rookie Year
Chapter I: The Origin
Team 2016 began at Ewing High School. Before becoming a FIRST team, Ewing had just a club. The club was started by one of the science teachers, Mr. Heywood, and a handful of stuents. This robotics club would go to FIRST competitions as spectators. 2006 was the first year Ewing High had a registered robotics team. However, they remained unnamed. What this new team was going to be called was the biggest question at the time. "Oh wait, what about Mighty Monkey Wrenches?" thought a group of freshman. "It has to do with a type of wrench and its a play on words!" However, the freshman were too timid to speak up until the brave one of the group stepped up and suggested the name and it was a hit. With the name for the team picked out, it was time to put a face to the name. The next day a student came in with a sketch of our muscle-bound monkey fitted with a bandana, wrench, and fatigues. The students on the team dubbed the new mascot Fez.
Chapter II: The Very First Build Season
At the time the team was located in Ewing High School's former wood shop which the team cleaned and painted themselves. This is where the first robot of many was built. After watching the Kick Off presentation that year at The College of New Jersey the team went back to the shop and began to ponder on a design for the robot. This is where the ideas for Sissy were conceived. After six majorly intense weeks of planning, designing, and building went by, we shipped our robot and awaited the start of the NJ Regional.
Chapter III: The New Frontier (aka Competition)
The day had finally come. The team geared up. We donned our team shirts, our red bandanas, our team fleeces, and went to school and directly to the workshop. Then we boarded the bus. We then arrived at the regional and it was an experience of a lifetime! Nothing can beat that first time a team partcipates in a FIRST event. It was like a whole new world. So many new things were to be seen. "Is that a banana?" "Hey look a wizard!" "LOOK! THERE'S A TEAM OF WALDOS! GIRL WALDOS!" Our team was more into FIRST then they had ever been before. We were intoxicated with the idea of winning. Then we lost. Can't win them all right? The winner for the Rookie All Star Award was still to be determined...guess who it was? This award was the first of many that Team 2016 would win. It was on to Atlanta next...the new new frontier!
Chapter IV: ATLANTA
We were amazed by the complete beauty of the FIRST Championships and the professionalism of everyone around us. In the Newton division we battled and fought for greatness with the other teams and came up with.... nothing. Oh well! It was totally cool to be there and meet so many other different teams from all over the world and the time in Atlanta will be remembered fondly in our memories. Not a bad year for being Rookies eh? Little did we know that there was way more things ahead of us!
Accomplishments
Rookie Year
- Rookie All-Star!
- Monty Madness Champs!
- Recognized by the New Jersey General Assembly
Our Robot
- 2006-2007; Sissy
