(relaxing music) - Nobody ever expects anything from Umatilla kids, outside of our community.

It's really frustrating.

If you've worked here long enough, you have seen your kids in the paper for going to jail a lot of times.

Outsiders drive through town, and they laugh and think, who would live here?

They look at our demographics, they look at the things that make a splash in the newspaper, and they think that's who we are, and it's just not.

(relaxing music) - I've been here most of my life, and I consider it a small town, middle of nowhere.

Our sports teams aren't very big.

There's no big companies around here.

(engine purring) If you ever wanna go out to eat, there's only like two places you can go.

There used to be more, but the other places got shut down.

So most people never leave their house.

And there's not much to do around here.

(relaxing music) - We all have this small town in common.

And I think everybody at one point in their life, has that concept of, no, I want to be the one person to do that amazing thing, but you kind of grow out of that.

- People make assumptions of what Umatilla is, and who we are.

There are kids who are dirt poor, there are kids who are upper-middle-class, and everywhere in between.

- We have a lot of kids that live right here, in this motel area.

We have a lot of kids who live in RVs, either right here, or right up there, next to the strip club.

- In this town, everyone's pretty much on an equal playing field.

None of us knew that we were below the poverty level, because that's what we've always grown up in.

A father missing in the house, parents wanting to divorce, children being the only ones keeping them together.

Those things tie us together.

- There's a lot of people that are struggling to make ends meet.

There's also a lot of immigrant families.

People saying, you know, what do we do here?

How do we fit in?

- (speaking in Spanish) I was eight years old when I moved here to the United States.

Adapting to a new culture was completely nerve-wracking.

My mom doesn't speak English very well.

She was like, teach me English, just teach me English, I can be in front of this.

- 'Cause there's lots of families that are trying to figure out what does it mean to be in Umatilla.

(relaxing music) - Our goal was, we wanted to somehow teach in the same school.

Good morning, thanks for doing all this.

And then, somehow, we heard about jobs in Umatilla.

We come down for the interview, I go in for my interview, Kyle goes in for his interview.

Joey, you're gonna be in Johnston, A5.

Have a good day.

So, we're driving home, and our phone goes off, and we already have a job offered.

We were thinking, wow, they picked us.

(laughs) What we realize now is they were like, holy cow, two people that already said they would live in this town, we can fill two positions in one day, done.

So we said, sure, and went for it.

I hope your tummy feels better.

Have a good day, okay?

Our plan was to stay for two years, 'cause when we pulled into town, we thought there's no way we're raising kids in this town.

It just looked so hideously ugly.

And then we moved in July, not realizing that this was a desert, and it was about 106 degrees, and we thought, what did we just do?

But the only thing I know how to do is to invest in where I am.

I always want to make that the best it can be, and do my part to make that the best it can be.

So I can't say that we thought we're gonna make this better, it was that we're gonna do our part.

- You know, you dream of this snuggly, cuddly, quiet little infant.

No, no, that wasn't Heidi.

She cried a lot.

She was super hypersensitive.

She was really super active.

I thought, there's no slowing this child down.

She's a go-getter, and she's always going to be a go-getter.

- I grew up north of Spokane, right on the Canadian border, in a place called Colville, Washington, and my parents met rodeoing.

My mom was a barrel racer, and my dad was a saddle bronc.

And then, I had my stepdad.

He was a complete and total (beep), and he made our lives miserable, and we had a horrific upbringing with him.

When Heidi was in high school, she was a mover and shaker.

She was class president, she was chosen to go to Washington DC.

So, she's always wanted to make a difference.

- My junior year, there was this super annoying guy in the seat behind me, just blonde, blue eyed, dumb jock.

- She hated me, actually.

She didn't really see me as boyfriend potential.

- Initially, I probably fell in love with Kyle because he made me laugh harder than anybody I had ever met.

And, yep, I was pregnant, April of my senior year in high school.

- You may not know the answer.

- We're obviously partners in our marriage, but we are also kind of professional partners, in that we take on a lot of challenges together.

I don't mind being the one that's not really the visionary like Heidi is, but I don't mind being the boots on the ground.

- So, I was 24 when I switched to administration.

One day, on a Friday, I got a visit from a board member, who said, we might need you to fill in a little bit this year, and I said, "Okay, no problem."

And then, on Monday he said, "Okay, you start tomorrow."

And that's how I became a superintendent.

(laughs) (upbeat music) The question of why give so much?

we never realized it wasn't an option.

Why wouldn't we give so much?

Why would we not chip in?

The "why do we do", we can't figure out, because it never occurred to us to not do it, ever.

(bell ringing) - Wake up, time to wake up.

Come on in and get comfortable.

Here we go.

Eyes on me, listen up.

If you haven't been a part of robotics before, the thing that you need to live and die by is, the next seven weeks are the most important time of the whole entire year.

- And it was at a regional hearing.

And while I was there, there was this amazing group of kids.

They're talking about this robotics program that they had, and I thought, oh my gosh.

And so, at that point I talked about how great that program was, but that it's not available to kids in rural areas.

And if that's something they're gonna have available, then I just think it should be for everyone.

(upbeat music) - [Announcer] Welcome to the FIRST robotics competition, and the 2016 tournament challenge, FIRST Stronghold.

The Alliance quest is to breach the opponent's defenses, known as the outer works, weaken their tower with boulders, and capture it.

The low bar in position one is permanent.

The defense in position three changes periodically, by audience selections.

Robots start in the neutral zone, and may have one boulder each.

Additional boulders will be placed on the midline, and each castle.

Human drivers remotely control their robots.

They retrieve boulders, overcome opponent defenses, and score boulders in goals from their opponent's courtyard.

- Yes.

- [Announcer] As boulders are scored, the tower loses strength.

The Alliance with the highest score at the end of the match earns the win.

- I assumed everyone in our high school would be equally pumped about this opportunity.

And I put the all call out about, hey, we just have this much money to start a robotics team, this is what it looks like.

Here's some examples.

Let me know if you wanna coach it.

And there was crickets.

- We're going to make it so you guys are prepared, and you're able to hit the ground running.

- And so, that led me to Kyle, who, at the time, was coaching both boys and girls basketball and football.

And so, I said, hey, by the way, I need a robotics coach, and it just kind of has to be you.

- It was just like a fly by night type of thing.

She called me and she said, we're gonna start a robotics team, but you're in charge.

Will you do it?

And I said, "sure."

(somber music) The six week timeframe is just key for the whole event.

We'll be in the shop from after school until eight or nine o'clock at night, putting in 80 to 100 hour weeks.

- What we need to be deciding right now.

So, one, what is the ideal robot?

What is the ideal robot doing?

Someone tell me.

They first started the team, and I didn't want anything to do with it.

I thought it'd be just a bunch of nerds sitting around eating pizza, and I think that's pretty much what everyone thinks it is.

There's some power tools, you're building a robot, that was for nerds, and I was not a nerd.

And I think that's one thing that we're really changing.

Why do we even have to call them nerds?

They're just robotics kids.

- The goal by the end of today is really to pick what our strategy is, and start designing.

- The Blue Alliance is here and there, drivers are here.

Before robotics, I was very shy and timid.

I didn't like putting myself out there.

After the first, just, couple of months, my first year, I got more comfortable with talking to people, and now that's the part I enjoy most, thinking of the strategy and developing the game.

- I am the build leader.

I manage what everyone does while building the robot, like what everyone's job is, and making sure they're doing it on time.

We don't have as much as other teams.

A lot of them are sponsored by huge companies.

They have tons of engineers, and they build like two or three robots, but not having much doesn't mean you can't get anywhere.

We're competing with these teams, and we're actually keeping up with them.

- The first year, we walked in, and it felt like one of those "Bad News Bears" types movies, where you walk in with your rag tag group, and thinking you're really cool, and you look around, and go, holy cow, we don't have a clue, what are we doing here?

We didn't understand that other teams had coaches that were real professionals.

We had no idea that other robots aren't fully built by the kids.

We had no idea that there's machine shops that were just doing all of it.

And here we show up, and we taught our kids how to weld by watching YouTube videos.

- Well, no one thought to look at the amperage, or how much electricity could pass through the connectors.

- Our robot caught fire.

- That robot sucked.

- It wasn't the best.

- It was awful.

- Alvin's a super quiet leader.

He's kind of a visionary, too.

When you see something that needs to happen, he's like, we gotta find a way to make it happen.

It's cool to see him grow up, and, right now, I treat him almost like a colleague.

- Everyone really has that thing that just gets them really interested.

Like some people it's music, some people it's art, they see the finer things.

I love seeing how things work.

I like not being taught things, I like figuring out my own, and Mr. Sipe is definitely one of those amazing teachers that can see things, not just from a teacher's perspective, but he can also see things at an emotional level.

He can see the personalities of people, and how they would apply to different things.

He's really good at making you focus on the problem, instead of getting frustrated by it, and going off in different directions.

- Prior to FRC, we were just a group of kids from a rural town.

We had dreams, but we didn't know how to make them a reality, until FIRST.

- Today, we were working on our Chairman's essay, and the essay has to be under 10,000 characters, including spaces.

- We thought success was for other people.

FIRST made us change the way we think, spend our time, view others, and improve our confidence and work ethic.

- The Chairman's Award, it's the highest honor.

So, if you win it at the district competitions, you will get an automatic ticket to go to the district championship.

And then, if you win at the district championship, you get an automatic ticket to go to the world finals.

- It still makes us tear up to think of how FIRST not only impacts our lives, but gives our community a shared joy and something to cheer for.

- Okay, one more time.

That's two, okay.

When Umatilla was awarded the 21st Century Community Learning Center grant.

I am really excited, but nervous at the same time.

This is my first time in Chairman's.

So, right now, my team and I were just practicing the lines, trying to memorize them, getting it ready for presentation.

My stomach is tied in knots right now.

- The parents are just like, all they know is they're gonna not see their kids for the next six weeks.

Midway through season, we get these phone calls of, do I ever get to see my kid again?

We're like, no, a couple more weeks.

- You've got your dad wrapped around your finger.

- Yeah, I do.

Mr. Sipe's the teacher that, if there were younger, and less old, and less teachery, that could be your friend.

It's really supporting to have that person in your life, who you just feel like they want the best out of you, or for you.

- And you can always wait for there to be more intro, and then go.

- Every defeat we've had, every tear that was shed, every time they said "You can't do it", we never stopped trying.

We rose to the occasion.

- Programming was always an interest to me, I just never had the courage to actually do it.

I just wanted to try out how programming is, and how hard it is for our programmer on the team.

- Sometimes I'll find myself the only girl in the shop with all these guys.

They'll all be telling their guy jokes and stuff, and I'll crack a joke, and they'll all start laughing, and I'm like, oh my gosh, I have the teenage boy humor now.

There's kind of this preconceived idea that girls should be fighting to get the opportunities.

I'm like, no, the opportunities should be coming to me.

I have all these ideas, and all this talent, that robotics has brought out in me.

Other people should notice it.

(chuckles) - It's 9:05 on a Sunday, I haven't been home all day.

I have to get up early for school tomorrow, start the whole routine again.

Can't wait.

(car door slamming) - Uno, dos, tres.

(medals jingling) - I think my mom's very proud.

She likes to show off my medals and stuff.

I'd usually just throw them in a box or something, but she likes to lay them out.

She doesn't really know it's a big deal.

She just knows that it's something really good.

I have vague memories of being a kid.

I was always at home doing my own thing, 'cause my parents were always busy working, and I never had any toys or anything, I just played with what I could find.

But then I noticed there were some kids that didn't even have what I had.

(child murmuring) It was second to last day of seventh grade, and I was walking home, and there were a bunch of police vehicles all over.

I walked into the living room, and I was like, "Mom, what's going on?"

Apparently, my dad was being arrested for something.

They thought he was a drug dealer, and he also had unlicensed weapons or something?

So, they took him away.

And then we found out that my dad was sent to a penitentiary somewhere in Oregon.

And so, when things like that happen, I was just kind of blank.

My mom, she's been working at Walmart for almost a year now, and she's been talking about splitting up with my dad for like years and years.

I never thought that it was gonna happen, because she'd talk about it forever.

But then, robotics season, she asked my help to go file the divorce papers, and I was like, oh, this is happening.

- One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine.

- All of the problems at home kind of grew me up, because it was like a reality check.

I'm a kid, but I have to do all this responsibility.

I have to make sure that the kids are okay.

- Here I come!

- I wanna give my siblings everything I didn't have.

I want them to have all the resources available, so they can do their best, and they just go and choose whatever path they want.

And that's why I wanna prove, so that you can make something of yourself.

Even if you don't have a lot of things.

- Three, two, one.

(robot whirring) Is it in?

- It's good, yeah.

(robot whirring) (hands drumming on desk) (motors whirring) (crowd groans) - We're all good, if its not browning out.

(upbeat music) (robot whirring) (crowd cheering) - Before robotics, I wouldn't have taken any risk.

- Ready?

- Right now, I see that there's a big chance that something great could come out of this.

I'm doing all this robotics work and stuff, and I'm starting to see the bigger picture of, whoa, this is gonna give me this big opportunity.

And before I would have settled for the lesser thing, because I would think it was too much work, too much money, too much time, things that I didn't have.

I don't wanna end up being in that nine to five box, where I just do what I think I have to do to get along.

I don't wanna end up being the adult, later, who is regretting not taking advantage of all that.

I have it outside my doorstep, knocking, like, hey, here's the opportunity.

It's crazy not to take it.

(relaxing music) (upbeat music) (crowd murmuring) (upbeat music) - Guys, everybody huddle up.

It's a confidential, whisper on three.

One, two, three.

- (team in unison) Confidential.

- Let's go.

- One.

(snaps fingers) ♪ O say can you see ♪ ♪ By the dawn's early light ♪ - Make it loud, make it proud, this will be 4125.

(crowd applauding) (girl cheering) (crowd cheering) - Let's go, let's go, let's go.

(upbeat music) - (crowd chanting) Teamwork, teamwork!

- Go, just go, get a ball.

Just get a ball, take over.

(crowd chanting) Drawbridge, drawbridge, drawbridge!

(crowd cheering) (indistinct) - Oh!

- Faster, faster.

(dramatic music) Behind you, you can't see it, turn and see it, right there, see that?

(dramatic music) - No!

(robots whirring) - Let's go, let's go, forget about him, go!

(dramatic music) (crowd cheering) (dramatic music) Forward, forward, forward!

Ready, ready!

(dramatic music) Go, go go go!

(dramatic music) - It's an easy point.

Turn it sideways, sideways!

Gotta make this, let's go!

(crowd cheering) 50 seconds, 50 seconds.

(crowd cheering) (dramatic music) (buzzer buzzes) (dramatic music) - When our covert operation began, in 2012, we had no idea what an impact we would make on our school, state, and country.

- So, Chairman's is FIRST's highest honor, and it's a lot of work.

It requires the essay, it requires a presentation, but what it means to the team if they win is that they automatically are moving on.

- Have you seen how it works?

- I've seen it's more of a vertical shooter.

- Yeah.

- One of the awards that we're up for is the Engineering Inspiration Award.

The judges interview the kids in the pits, which is why we keep Rebecca in so often in the pits, and, hopefully, the judges like what we have.

Could you do me a favor and get parents to quit texting me what they think their ideas, and what we need to improve on.

- Do you really think I could get parents to stop doing that?

- Unbelievable.

(robot whirring) - Yeah, it's shooting way to the right.

- It's like a marathon runner, you do get used to it.

You start learning how to battle through how tired you are, and the adversity.

- You and Rebekah, Capriana, Anthony, you gotta plan it out, okay?

Pull the gearbox off, take that whole entire shooting array off, put the new shaft on, clip on the new gearbox, bolt it back on again as quick as possible.

When things go bad, and things get low, it is mental toughness and your experience and your maturity that will pull you up and get you back to the high.

Respond positively always, and good things will happen.

- Help me understand an obstacle that you've had, and what you've done to overcome that.

They're probably gonna ask something like that.

- Even though I didn't think I was good enough, because I didn't have resources, but my team gave me a chance and I took it.

- Nice, okay, you're good.

You look good.

Fix your fly.

It's not unzipped, but it's like weird.

- And then, my sophomore year, I became more on to the designing and building of the robot than electrical, so maybe I could be a mechanical engineer.

- Alvin is one of those kids that it took me years to even figure out who he was, or that he even talked.

He was very, very quiet.

But at his Dean's List interview, he talked about how his interests have changed, how his skills have progressed, he talked about how much he's grown.

He talked about what he tries to do for others.

- Good luck today.

- Thank you.

- He's deserved this opportunity, he's worked so hard to be who he is today, and he is so clear about the vision he has for himself tomorrow, it is just so exciting.

Proud to know you.

- Do you know your fly is open?

(robots whirring) - So, one of the things you see our kids doing in the stands is scouting.

They're collecting data on every single robot that's out there.

How many shots are they attempting to make?

How many shots are they making?

What obstacles can they breach?

What did they attempt to breach, and succeed, or fail?

All of that goes into a database that Megan built, and she tracks all of that, and then computes a final score for how the robots would be ranked if they had played individually.

- So, we're currently in 22nd place.

So, we are working with some teams to get paired with them for alliance selection.

- Hi, I'm Cameron Sipe, I'm junior project manager for Team 4125, Confidential.

- Our marketing team goes into fast action, and they will go sell themselves, and say that we're ranked here according to alliances, but we're ranked here according to individual bot performance, and then you just have to hope that somebody tuned into that.

- But we just wanted to check in and see how your alliance choosing was going.

- We haven't decided yet, but we're gonna figure that out.

- Okay, all right, is there anything you need from us at all?

I'm thinking that's their way of turning us down, but I'm not sure.

- So, our plan right now is that we would only talk to the top teams that we want to be with and say, we can do low goal, we can do high goal, we can play defense, we can compliment you.

- Cyborgs came and talked to us again after I went and talked to the other teams.

So, their big question was if we'd be willing to play defense.

- (participants in unison) Oh yeah!

- So, we could still, from this point forward, be matched up with other high scoring bots and just take over from here.

- (gasp) Our team's up.

- Okay.

- Can we come back?

- Yeah, come back.

- Okay.

- Guys, really good job on a tiring, very long day.

The robot didn't get destroyed, which is good.

Tomorrow, we have to be at our best.

Your effort today was incredible, but there's 159 teams in our district that are just like us.

Only three move on.

Which means you gotta take care of business tonight, and you gotta go to bed and take that serious.

We have to get our rest.

(girl screaming) (water splashing) (girls giggling) (washing machine whirring) - Do you know what all the acronyms are, for all the different scoring?

- Yes.

- What's OPR?

- Offensive point ranking, and we were like third on that most of the day today.

And then DPR is defensive point ranking, and we didn't do quite as well on that one, I think we were fifth for most of the day.

The lowest we were ranked all day was 27th, right?

- Out of 30, yeah.

(relaxing music) - Dean's List is an award.

It celebrates students who show outstanding leadership and commitment to their school and to their community.

These are students who are really role models for the rest of us to look up to and to respect.

This is a pretty big deal.

There's little trade schools, all across the country, like MIT and Yale and Princeton, who put the Dean's List students in a separate pile, and it's a very short pile, and it will almost guarantee you an entrance interview.

So, it is really a big honor to be recognized for the Dean's List award.

We have two Dean's List nominees.

I'd like to invite these two students to come down.

Alvin Garcia from 4125.

(crowd cheering) - This is a new experience for me.

I was like, whoa, Dean's List, that's for people who are good at stuff.

But when I reflected, I was like, I guess I did do quite a bit.

Robotics teaches you a lot of things.

I realized you can aim high, and fail, but then overcome that.

Whatever they throw at me, I'm sure I can get done.

Even if I don't have the skills to do so, I have the skills to acquire the skills that I need to get through.

- [Announcer] Let's do one more award.

- Okay, we'll do one more award.

- The West Valley district Chairman's Award that honors the team that best represents a model for other teams to emulate, and best embodies the purpose and goals of FIRST.

- Influential, effective, enthusiastic, and grateful, are just a few of the words that describe this team.

There are a small team from a small town.

Advocating for FIRST at the local, state, and national level, this team led the development of the highest density of FIRST teams of any US school district with more than 1000 students.

No longer top secret, this team's FIRST success has been declassified.

Congratulations, Team 4125!

(crowd cheering) - We can't keep this confidential any more!

From Umatilla, Oregon, Umatilla High School, Team 4125, Confidential!

- Thank you all tonight, feel free to clear out the pits.

Sure.

(laughs) (triumphant music) - I was born in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico.

I have one little sister, she's in middle school, and a half-brother, Santiago.

I was eight years old when I moved from Guadalajara, Jalisco to Hermiston, Oregon.

I knew very little English.

Couple colors, how to say car, or dog, and stuff like that.

And then I moved to Umatilla in the sixth grade, like when I was 11.

Right now, my dad is in Mexico, so he's not really involved with us.

There was a lot of conflict between him and my mom.

So, after we moved here, they thought maybe starting over again fresh would help them, but it just didn't work out.

Right now, my mom, she works at this potato factory kind of thing, but, lately, we've been really short on money, and so she's been trying to get credit, also, to be able to buy a house later on, maybe next year.

So, she's been working a lot more, recently, to be able to provide for us.

This is my grandmother, right there, my aunt, another one of my mom.

This is my great-grandma.

My mom would tell me stories about how people around town would make fun of her, and my uncles, for being poor.

And, sometimes, when they needed new shoes, they couldn't get them so they had to like, be walking around barefoot.

A year and a half ago, when I came back from Mexico, and we didn't have, really, anywhere to go.

So, for a while, I guess you could say we were homeless, but we were staying at a shelter.

My mom had to wake us up really early each morning to take us to someone's house, because we weren't allowed to be in the shelter by ourselves without an adult in there.

So, our apartment, I know it's small and all, but it has definitely made me appreciate that we are here.

I come from a family who hasn't had much education, and my goal is to be able to be the first one in college to be able to get a degree.

So, yeah, yeah.

(laughs) - So, winning at Spokane made it so that we could compete here for Chairman's.

If we win Chairman's here, then it takes us directly to Worlds, and we get to compete at the world level for Chairman's.

- And then, Saturday afternoon is alliance selection, and hopefully we get picked to be on an alliance, and compete to win the bet.

- Well, I mean, I need you to look around, and walk around, and look at what some of the teams are doing, and see if they're starting to group together.

- The most we can do, and even it's pushing it, is that, what are our chances of being a third pick.

- Yeah.

- And, with a third pick, there's no way to know.

- Someone needs to be down here, 'cause, a lot of times, kids come over and say, hey, where's your head scout?

- I know.

You just gotta keep-- - I know.

- I'm just-- - Sorry.

- Okay, (indistinct).

- So, the top 7 teams get to choose alliances.

So, it's basically like picking dodge ball teams in PE.

What we're trying to do is either be their second or third alliance pick.

- We're not gonna be a second pick alliance, it's just how this plays out, so, we're gonna be a third pick.

- We'd have to get chosen by an alliance.

- Yeah.

- And then we'd feel a lot better.

If we don't get chosen, then all our hopes are on Engineering Inspiration or Chairman's.

- [Announcer] Okay, Team 3574 and Team 2990, I'd like graciously invite to you 4911.

(crowd cheering) 4911, it's the king scorer, (indistinct).

- (chuckles) I can't stop crying.

- The robot wasn't picked for alliance.

So, the kids that were more associated with the robot, obviously, are really upset.

You know, a couple of them were brought to tears because of the hope and then the let down.

But we hopefully can get Chairman's, or Inspiration and Engineering, to give us a ticket to go to Worlds.

So, that's basically what we're waiting for.

- I'll be sitting with Cameron in the stands, because she is going to crumble if we don't win Chairman's.

She has dedicated this entire last year, all of her spare time, to try to elevate the team, and hit that top Chairman's level.

If it doesn't happen, holy cow.

- She's also gonna crumble if we win it.

- Yeah!

(laughs) - Because of the same reason.

- Either way, we're gonna be picking Cam off the floor.

(Heidi laughs) (trumpet fanfare) - The Chairman's Award is the most prestigious award at FIRST.

It honors the team that best represents a model for other teams to emulate, and best embodies the purposes and goals of FIRST.

- [Announcer] Congratulations to (indistinct) for (indistinct).

(crowd cheering) (crowd cheering) - [Announcer] Congratulations to Confidential!

- This time you were going to take the risk.

I know.

- Third time.

- I know.

(crowd applauding) - I don't know how to say this without sounding really egotistical, but it's rare that I'm driving back from big meetings, and I'm not fresh off of somebody offering me some sort of job, where I'm looking at, should we move, should we change?

I also understand that, for some reason, I've been given this really odd skillset, and I don't think it's especially unique, but it's especially needed for some places.

And when those places contact me, it's not usually that I want to go.

The conversation usually is, where am I needed?

But, as far as a desire to go somewhere else, I don't have that.

And the desire to ladder climb, I don't have that.

But when people are talking to me about opportunities, of course, they sound great, and of course, that messes with my mind, and I think about them, but there's never one time there's been an opportunity where I wanted to leave Umatilla.

I don't know, this place just got stuck in my heart, somehow.

(upbeat music) - I love you.

- I love you, too, mom.

- Good luck to everyone!

We're praying for you!

(upbeat music) - [Participant] Brenda, Cam, Capriana, Tristan.

- (laughs) 'Kay, goodbye.

Have a good trip!

(kids chatting) (upbeat music) - We've put a lot of time and energy into getting the kids here, and it's not truly about whether or not they come home with this big championship, it's about them running into people from all around the world, it's about them meeting people with different experiences, and it's mainly about them building the confidence in themselves to realize that they're surrounded by the best in the world because they're also the best in the world, and that's a pretty great thing.

(upbeat music) - What are the rules, though?

- It's Just Rummy.

- Oh, we're playing Rummy?

(upbeat music) - Is that the Great Salt Lake?

Look, kids, the Great Salt Lake is to your right.

(upbeat music) (kids chatting) - Yeah, we're on the side of the freeway right now.

Oh, and the exit says Exit 376.

We have kids on the bus, and quite a few adults, so, if you could lend a ride, that would be awesome.

- I feel bad for the kids.

- [Heidi] They seem to be happy, though.

- Yeah, they do.

Well, they have the optimism that you rubbed off on them.

- I have a horribly twisted sense of humor, and I find this whole situation hysterically funny.

- How funny?

- Okay, number one, I'm taking this majestic photo of the bus, and then smoke comes out of it, funny.

Then, we tell the kids, it's just gonna be a minute, and they're getting yelled at by one of the drivers about "keep your heads in the bus" and all this stuff, we think this is gonna be a 10 minute deal, funny.

Two, three, the mechanic says he's gonna be 10 to 15 minutes.

That was like two hours ago, and he just showed up, funny.

Four, these random people were willing to totally change their evening to come pick us up.

And, I was desperate enough, I was gonna put our kids on the train, or car, with these random people, because, honestly, they're better than where we're at right now, funny.

This is funny.

(chuckles) - Things are bad, but you're amazingly positive.

That's great.

- Aww, thank you, honey, I like you, too.

- You're adorable.

- Okay, so, here's the mechanic, and here's the bunny.

(kids laughing) He's saying, "Come on, come on, come on."

That's the best I've got, that's all I've got.

So, here's what happened.

We had the one, two punch of bad gas and a bad sensor, all for fun, and we have a backup plan.

So, Burlington is only about 47 miles away.

There's a charter bus company in Burlington.

And we made arrangements for them to pick us up, and everything was gonna be fine, except they just got hit by that tornado, and all their buses are flooded in, and they can't get 'em out, so.

So, here's the big plan.

There's a gentleman that owns the bus company, and he's agreed to drive us as far as Topeka.

So then, in Topeka, a different bus company is gonna pick us up, and then they're going to take us to the next spot.

And we're just gonna keep doing that until we end up there.

(upbeat music) If you think of, you're gonna go through a tornado, it's best to do it at night, then you don't see what's happening, right?

- It's the opposite, actually.

If you actually see it coming, you get to avoid it.

- No, that's what I mean.

Then we won't have any level of stress.

It'll just be like, whoop, what just happened?

Right?

- Yeah.

(upbeat music) - Look at all the long faces right now.

- Yo.

(upbeat music) - I feel the power.

- Pretty excited to be in Missouri, finally.

What was supposed to be a 33-hour road trip, we're now an hour 48.

We've spent eight hours broken down, four in Utah, four in Colorado.

We're on our fourth bus.

So, apparently, even numbers are a thing right now.

- We made it!

- Oh, this is like paratroopers!

Go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go.

- Run, run, run, run.

- I think the reason that robotics is important has nothing to do with the machines at all, and everything to do with the confidence, the independence, the motivation, all of those internal professional skills, and identity skills.

Any time a kid fits in, any time a kid finds something that they really feel passionate about, any time a kid fits an environment where they're like, these are my people, those are the moments to create for kids.

(relaxing music) Look at this.

Isn't that cool?

(relaxing music) (upbeat music) - Yeah, we gotta roll.

We gotta roll, we gotta do it now.

Come here, walk with me.

Okay, so, when you're coaching with these guys, your main role is, keep Bradley and Alvin to very simple strategy, okay, and make sure that they're having meaningful conversations, and talking strategy, when they're queuing up.

Keep reminding them how much time, especially Bradley.

Start counting down like the last 20.

- Okay.

- Okay?

- Okay.

- We don't really have time for you to get a practice match.

Ms. Sipe just found out that we have to go get ready for dinner.

So, this is all kind of just thrown at us.

- Okay.

- Okay?

Any questions?

- No, it's like you're doing anything, and taking a chance, right?

Have you gone water skiing before?

You're going water skiing.

You gonna go try it, see how fun it is.

You're going to, right after the match, go, man, I should have done this.

You're gonna have about five or six of those.

You can't live in the past, you just gotta move the move ahead, okay?

Why are you crying?

- I don't know.

(chuckles) - I think I know why.

You're awesome, kid.

- Let's go get those matches, I think.

- Run, Forest, run!

- So, we're headed to our match.

This is potentially our last match ever.

We're competing with the best 600 teams in the world, so, to even be one of those teams, and make it here, it's all really exciting.

And it's the first time I've ever been on the field.

I kind of get to see all the work that I do behind the scenes, with scouting, play out on the field, and do the strategy that the drivers get to do every time they go out and compete.

- Go there and then, after that-- - And then I go right over there.

- Good evening.

Let me begin by saying thank you to all who have opened the hearts and minds of the students in rural Oregon.

In our Northeast corner of Oregon, we have a shortage of both industry and opportunity.

Too few kids attend college.

About five years ago, I learned about FIRST, and brought it to my school district.

FIRST has been amazing.

FIRST provides our schools with the perfect combination of interest, robots, drive, the competition, soft skill building, gracious professionalism, hard skill building, programming, designing, and building electromechanical systems, and marketing, and access to STEM professionals and universities.

It also allows my students to dream new dreams.

I go from watching them be students who lack vision, skill, and confidence, to becoming leaders who believe they can do anything.

25% of the kids in our district are now on a FIRST team.

Of the seniors on our team, 100% have both graduated from high school and gone into college.

FIRST works.

(crowd cheering) - We lost, we lost 176 to 102.

- Oh.

- 35 of it was foul points, for us breaking down in their courtyard.

- Oh my gosh, oh.

- What happened?

- Oh, no.

Does somebody have Megan on suicide watch?

It's not her fault.

- I already prepped her for that.

- Okay.

- [Man] Come on!

(upbeat music) - (crowd chanting) Let's go FIRST!

Let's go FIRST!

- I've had an amazing four years, and so, no matter what the outcome is, we had an amazing season.

Just the opportunity to be here, at the championship, that's been great.

(upbeat music) (crowd cheering) (upbeat music) (relaxing music) So, after Worlds, just, a lot of things started happening really quickly.

The kids had just gotten stomped, I mean, they lost so badly.

And then there was some job opportunities across the state that were opening up.

Also various pressures about, can we keep the momentum that we've built throughout the various afterschool programs.

And a lot of soul searching went on in a very short period of time.

So, we waded through some different opportunities, and some different career moves.

I don't know what kind of cheese goes on a meatball sub.

Okay, great.

And then two grilled cheese-- Kyle was teasing me.

He's like, you just need an excuse to stay, don't you?

You need an excuse.

I'm like, yeah, I probably need an excuse.

- Why this house?

- I've always liked this house!

- Really?

- Yeah.

So that's when he said, well, why don't we just buy the house across the street?

We've always loved the look of this house, and so we decided to go for it.

- Where are we gonna put it?

- I'm thinking in the basement?

Cam's three-year-old preschool.

(laugh) That was when she went by Cami.

So, that was a very bittersweet thing, because leaving that house was really hard, just 'cause we raised our kids there, but it's great, because we get to see it across the street.

(relaxing music) Man, he must have hurt, look at that.

(laughs) I remember thinking he was so tall.

I promised to have strength.

- We're almost there.

(relaxing music) - We've always told ourselves that as soon as we aren't the people that are making good things happen for kids, when that's maxed out, then it's time for us to go, because we would never want to be in the way of progress.

But, until then, we have stuff to do.

And there's also so many kids we can't imagine leaving yet.

We don't want to not see how their story ends yet, and we want to be there for that, and see them change and grow.

Thank you.

(smooch) So, for purely selfish reasons, (laughing) we chose to stay in Umatilla.

(relaxing music)