Team Pronto FRC 3070 makes strong showing at Sammamish High School Robotics competition

Shoreline's Team Pronto includes students from Shorewood, Shorecrest, homeschool, and private schools.

By Veronica Cook

This weekend, Team Pronto FRC 3070 had the honor of participating in our first competition since our success at the FIRST Robotics World Championship last spring. The event, held at Sammamish High School in Bellevue, saw us compete against 30 other talented teams from across the Pacific Northwest.

We gave it our all, both on and off the field. In addition to our robot’s performance, we volunteered to help the host team judge the local FIRST Lego Robotics competition, which was taking place at the same event. 

Dressed in our signature safety orange shirts and unicorn hats, we made quite the impression—so much so that the MC joked we could be seen from “10 zip codes away.” 

And if you could hear us, you could also feel the excitement as we cheered on our drive team while they worked to clean the coral in “Reefscape.”

Our efforts were recognized when we were chosen as the first pick in the 6th alliance by Team 1899, Saints Robotics of Bellevue. Team 1294, Pack of Parts of Sammamish, rounded out the alliance as the second pick.

Though we faced a tough loss in our first match in the finals, sending us to the lower bracket, we didn’t back down. We clawed our way through two intense matches—first defeating the 7th alliance, then overcoming the 5th alliance, despite being given only a 38% chance of winning. 

Our journey ended in the lower bracket when we were eventually eliminated by the 4th alliance, securing a solid 4th-place finish.

It was an exciting and incredibly long weekend, but it only fueled our passion and determination for what’s next. 

We’ll be back at it tomorrow, refining our robot for our next competition at Auburn High School from March 21-23, 2025. We can’t wait to continue pushing our limits and representing Team Pronto with pride.

We also want to take the opportunity to recognize our original mentor, Joe Tinoco, who was nominated for the prestigious Woodie Flowers Mentor Award. 

We are so fortunate to have him and all of our other mentors, who gave up their entire weekend to support us and will continue to dedicate their evenings as we prepare for our next competition. We couldn’t do it without them.

Finally, we want to thank all of our families who helped us cheer on Team Pronto and contributed to making us one of the largest teams represented in the stands. 

Other teams even asked us how we managed to get such strong parent participation on our team. Your support has certainly set a standard that other teams are now hoping to replicate. We truly made a Unicorn Stampede!

Our team is based at Shorewood High School and made up of students from Shorecrest and Shorewood, as well as homeschool and private school students in the Shoreline area. If you are interested in joining, please send us an email at 3070executive@gmail.com!

And stay tuned as we prepare for the next stage of the competition season!