About Us
members - Coaches - Awards - Media Exposure
Keegan BirtKeegan is a homeschooled highschool senior who is attending Mohawk Valley Community College this year. His hobbies include ballet, soccer, coding, tutoring, and app development. Keegan's main jobs on the team are 3D modeling on Solidworks and annoying Leon (helping him debug). He enjoys FTC "because it's cool". He also likes the color yellow. Jessalyn Birt"Creativity is intelligence having fun." - Albert Einstein
Jessa is a homeschooled sophomore taking classes at Oriskany High School and the newest member of the team. Her hobbies include ballet, crafting, slime-making, reading, thinking, and video editing. On the team, Jessa does most of the photography, website design, and budget spreadsheets. She likes working on a team where everyone contributes according to their talents. Despite being on the Javascouts, Jessa has never had coffee before. She is rather fond of pineapple juice, though. Leon Zong“...offering the gifts...” - Pope Clement I
Leon is a senior at New Hartford and an Eagle Scout. His hobbies include Boy Scouts, violin, saxophone, marching band, jazz band, orchestra, soccer, running, LEGOs™, browsing Wikipedia, and drawing triangles, besides being a contributing team member. Leon does a lot of programming for the team, as well as robot building. He enjoys FTC because it’s hands-on and involves thinking logically, problem solving, and winning. He likes android phones, but Apple computers. |
Kyle Grover"Yeet"
Kyle is a senior at New Hartford and an Eagle Scout. His hobbies include being an EMT, Boy Scouts, playing cello and percussion, and tennis. On the team, Kyle programs and helps to build the robot. He enjoys FTC because he likes robots and making things work. When asked for a final comment he said, "Yeet." He also likes ducks. Jimi Wadnola"I have not failed. I have just found 10,000 ways that don't work." - Thomas Edison
Jimi is a senior at New Hartford and an Eagle Scout. His hobbies include football, playing piano and percussion. His main job on the team is building the robot. He enjoys FTC because he likes working with his teammates and competing with something they made. He also enjoys looking at water. |
Jeff Birt“Nothing has ever been achieved by the person who says ‘It cannot be done’” - Eleanor Roosevelt
Coach Birt teaches mechanical engineering at the local community college. He likes to inspire and encourage young minds to think technically, yet out of the box. When asked about his hobbies, he replied, “I don’t have time for hobbies.” He enjoys coaching FTC because he likes watching the progression of both people and parts. “They [the team] always surprise me with their great attitudes and abilities.” He also enjoys visiting national parks. |
F.J. WadnolaCoach Wadnola is a reading teacher at Richfield Springs Central School, as well as a BSA leader and Council Board Member. He coaches Track & Field, Soccer, Baseball, and Softball. He enjoys coaching FTC because “it is rewarding to see the progression of teams and [their] members develop from mere kids to young adults”. He is also a musician and enjoys playing drums. |