Team History

Team 973: The Greybots was founded in 2002 by Atascadero High’s physics teacher, John Miron, and a small group of high school students. At the team’s first competition, the Silicon Valley Regional, Team 973 received the Rookie All Star Award recognizing the team’s early efforts to promote science and technology in the community.

In 2006, the team made their first visit to World Championships. Larry Price, a Senior Engineer at Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant, took on the role of lead mentor for the 2007 season.

The 2008 season was the first year that Team 973 advanced into the finals at any competition at the Las Vegas Regional. In 2009, Team 973 built two robots for the first time. This idea proved to be beneficial to The Greybots for the extra practice time, and they won their first ever regional competition in Long Beach. At World Championships in 2009 Team 973's robot, Raptor, advanced to the semifinals of the Galileo division.

In 2011, Larry Price stepped down and passed the lead mentor role to Adam Heard. That year, Team 973 joined forces with Team 1323. At the San Diego and Los Angeles Regional Competitions, The Greybots received their first judged awards in six years. At World Championships, Team 973 teamed up with Team 254 from San Jose, CA and Team 111 from Schaumburg, IL. Team 973's Mini Bot was one of the fastest of all the competing teams. It was this alliance that earned the title 2011 World Champions, a first for Team 973.

In 2012, Team 973 won the Excellence in Engineering Award sponsored by Delphi at the World Championship. It is the highest engineering award that is given at the Championship given to Team 973 for the implementation and control of their fully independent swerve drive system.

The 2014 season brought with it the introduction of 973 RAMP (Remote Assistance and Mentorship Program) as an official channel of communication for teams looking for anything from design/fabrication to organization tips. The win at the Central Valley Regional qualified the team for the World Championships. In St. Louis, the Greybots earned the Judge's Award and won the Galileo Division, finishing the season as semifinalists at the Championship level.

In 2017, Team 973 created their fierce robot, ”Bloodhound”, and competed in eight competitions that year. Bloodhound traveled to the Central Valley Regional but was knocked out in the Semifinals. Luckily, at our second regional in Sacramento Team 973 won the regional with Teams 2543 and Team 1678, which earned the team a spot into the Houston Championship. Team 973 Roebling Division as first seed alliance captains - the first time in team history. The long battle in the Einstein matches was proven to be victorious to Team 973 with their winning alliance Team 1011, Team 2928, and Team 5499. That summer, Team 973 traveled to New Hampshire at the FIRST Headquarters to compete at the first and only FIRST Festival of Champions competition to compete against the winners of the Detroit Championship. Our original alliance partner Team 2928 was not able to travel to New Hampshire, an alternate Team 4188 was sent in their place. Our alliance won two out of five rounds. In the off-season Team 973 went to Chezy Champs and made it to the semis, with Teams 1538, and Team 604, in Beach Blitz Team 973 was able to take the win with Team 330 and Team 968. Another win for Team 973 in Capital City classic with Team 1323 and Team 1678, and made it to finals in Madtown Throwdown with Team 971C, and Team 1323.

In 2019 “Fireball” came in charging and competed in five competitions in the same year. The first event of the year, the Orange County Regional, Team 973 was able to have a victorious moment with the help from Team 330 and Team 597. Next up at Sacramento Regional, Team 973 chose Team 1072 and Team 3250, and was able to make it to finals. Finally it was time for the Houston Championships and Team 973 was able to knock out the other teams in round robin, and with that it was 973 Team add alliance members vs Team 254, Team 3310, and Team 6986. Team 973 and their alliance clinched another championship victory in the three matches. During the off-season Team 973 was able to go sixteen out of forty and joined Team 1983, Team 604, Team 2102 in Chezy Champs. During Madtown Throwdown Team 973 was able to rank fourth out of thirty-one teams and joined Team 1678 and Team 6465.